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Korean Airlines Flight 007

2018-03-03T17:28:12Z

BertSchlossberg:

[[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rescue+007]]

[[Image:KAL007 in Ancorage.JPG|right|thumb|300px|The aircraft that flew Korean Airlines Flight 007 - HL7442 - on the ground in [[Hong Kong]], possibly just days before its final flight as KAL 007 on September 1, 1983.]]
'''Korean Airlines Flight 007''' (KAL007) was a scheduled passenger flight from [[New York City]] to [[Seoul]], [[South Korea]] between August 31 and September 1, 1983, when it was attacked and shot down by fighter aircraft of the [[Soviet Union]] after straying into Soviet airspace near the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin Island. The reported deaths of 269 passengers, including one sitting Congressman - [[Conservative]] [[Larry McDonald]] (D-GA), and crew combined with massive Soviet [[deceit|deception]] as to the location of the crash site provoked international outrage, and may have been a catalyst leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union itself as a [[Politics|political]] entity.

It being a catalyst for the collapse of the Soviet Union may be inferred from the fact that [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] had decided, under the impetus of the U.S. administration, to deploy [[Pershing II]] and cruise [[missile]]s in [[Europe]], primarily [[West Germany]]. This deployment would have placed missiles just 6–10 minutes striking distance from [[Moscow]]. But support for the deployment was wavering and many doubted that the missile deployment would find enough support to effect it.
When the Soviet Union shot down Flight 007 with 269 people aboard—an act which U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]] characterized as a "massacre"—enough support was galvanized for the deployment. Many believe this U.S. confrontational demonstration of strength to be a factor in the demise of the Soviet Union.
[[Image:KAL007.JPG|thumb|300px]]
==The Flight==
KAL 007, a commercial [[Boeing]] 747-230B (registration number HL7442) departed John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on August 31, 1983, stopped at Anchorage, Alaska for refueling at 3:00 AM local time, then departed on the final leg to Seoul-Kimpo International Airport in South Korea. On board, there were 269 occupants comprised of 3 flight crew, 20 cabin attendants, 6 dead-headers (repositioning KAL employees), and 240 passengers (including air marshals). Nationalities (in descending order) were 76 Koreans, 61 Americans, 28 Taiwanese, 23 Japanese, 16 Filipinos, and a lesser number for remaining nationalities. There were 22 children on board under the age of 12 years.<ref>For passenger (and crew) seating, photos, and stories for some, written by family and loved ones see [http://www.rescue007.org/passengers.htm Rescue 007: Passengers].</ref>

[[Image:Chun byung in.jpg|Capt. Chun byung-in, Pilot of KAL 007|left|thumb|Capt. Chun Byung-in]]

[[Image:KA Flight 007.PNG|right|thumb|200px|Planned (''dashed line'') and actual (''solid line'') route of Korean Airlines Flight 007, September 1, 1983]]
KAL 007's flight plan was to take it southwest from Anchorage to [[Japan]], staying over sea with the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands far to the west, then cross Japan's mainland to South Korea. The aircraft's principal mode of navigation was to be the INS, or [[Inertial Navigation System]]. Based on [[radar]] information it was determined that KAL 007 had in fact strayed off course too far west, placing it directly over Soviet territory more than once. It was about 10 minutes after take-off that the jumbo jet began its deviation to the west. Twenty minutes after, civilian radar at Kenai, Alaska tracked KAL 007 5.6 nautical miles (NM) deviated. Fifty minutes after, military radar at King Salmon, Alaska tracked it at 12.6 NM deviated. One by one, KAL 007 plunged through its navigational checkpoints ever increasing its deviation—60 NM at waypoint NABIE, 100 NM at waypoint NUKKS, and 160 NM at waypoint NEEVA, until 3 hours after take-off, it entered Russian territory north of the port city of [[Petropavlovsk]] on Kamchatka. Home to the Far East Fleet Inter-Continental Ballistic Nuclear Submarine Base, Petropavlovsk was bristling with weaponry. For a summary of the ICAO analysis as to why KAL 007 strayed off course, see [[How KAL 007 was Lost]].

===Possible Pilot Awareness of Deviation===

The following is the agreed upon data by commentators and investigating bodies such as ICAO which concluded that the deviation was not intentional but due to a lack of situational awareness, and such as the opposite understanding that the deviation and intrusion into Soviet air space was intentional for purposes of saving on fuel by "shortcutting", or intelligence gathering.

'''The Horizontal Situation Indicator:''' From Bethel and on, alert pilots could have known much—starting with the Horizonal Situation Indicator The Horizontal Situation Indicator’s needle would have alerted the pilots of their course deviation. This is because the cockpit HSI console needle, capable of showing deviation only up to eight miles, would be “pegged” all the way to the side. The pilots, thus, could have known that they were at least eight miles off course. An aircraft HSI generally has an image of a plane directly above the Horizontal Situation Indicator’s needle when the aircraft is on course. A needle pointing to the left or to the right of the image would indicate that the plane is deviated left or right of the course. KAL 007’s HSI’s needle would have been pegged all the way to the right (North). ICAO expanded on the Horizontal Situation Indicator’s capability of showing course deviation. The pilots could have known that they were off course by looking at the Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI) in front of each of them. Though the HSI was primarily designed to show the aircraft’s situation with regard to the horizon, the 747’s HSI contained an indicator to register deviation from plotted course. “Indications [of being on course] available to the crew would have been a reducing or zero track bar displacement with the HSI display set to INS and a similar reducing or zero cross track error on the CDUs [consoles]. There would have been a similar effect with the VOR track displacement…” <ref>ICAO report 1993, p. 42, sect. 2.4.4.</ref>

Despite this, strangely enough, at 13:49, the pilots were reporting that they were on course! “007, Bethel at forty niner.” Fifty minutes after takeoff, military radar at King Salmon, Alaska acquired KAL 007 at more than 12.6 miles off course. It had exceeded its permissible leeway of deviation by six times! (Two nautical miles an hour error is the permissible drift from course set by INS.)

'''Difficulties in making required reports:''' Furthermore, pilot and copilot could also have been aware of the aircraft’s serious deviation because now, much more than 12 miles off course, KAL 007 was too far off course for the pilots to make their required Very High Frequency (VHF) radio reports, and had to relay these reports via KAL Flight 015, just minutes behind it and on course (KAL 007,increasingly off course, would have to rely on KAL 015 three times to transmit its reports to Anchorage Air Traffic Control). That could have alerted them.

At one point in this section of its flight, (14:43 GMT) KAL 007 put a call through a navigational “hookup,” the International Flight Service Station on High Frequency. Flight 007, now too distant to speak directly with Anchorage Controller through Very High Frequency, was transmitting its message indirectly using High Frequency. At another point of this section of the flight, at waypoint NABIE, KAL 007 was too far north to make radar contact with the Very High Frequency Air Traffic Control relay station on St. Paul’s Island. KAL 015 relayed for KAL 007. The message was a change in the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) for the next waypoint called NEEVA—delaying by four minutes the ETA that KAL 015 had previously relayed on behalf of KAL 007. Since a revised ETA could only be calculated by means of readout information presented by KAL 007’s Inertial Navigation Systems Control Display unit, pilot and copilot were once again presented with the opportunity of verifying their position and becoming aware of their enormous deviation.

'''Contrary wind conditions of KAL 007 and KAL 015:''' KAL 007 had now passed out of Kamchatka air space and was now a few minutes into international air space over the Sea of Okhutsk and heading in the direction of Terpenie Bay on the west shore of Sakhalin Island. At the same minute (18:05 GMT) that Maj. Osipovich in his Su-15 interceptor has fallen in behind KAL 007 and reports to his ground conroller, "am observing", KAL 007, off course, and KAL 015, on course many miles away, and about 15 minutes beind KAL 007, compare wind velocity and direction. KAL 015 is enountering tailwinds while KAL 007 is encountering headwinds

KAL 015: "Um Um We are now having an unexpected strong tailwind How much do you get there? How much and which direction?" KAL 007: "206. Ask him how many knots?..." KAL 007: "Ah! You got so much! We still got headwind. Headwind 215 degrees, 15 knots." KAL 015: "Is it so? But according to flight plan wind direction 360, 15 knots approximately." KAL 007: "Well, it may be like this." Capt. Chun, by accepting these irreconcilables, has lost his last chance to escape.

'''Weather radar: ''' There was one last navigational aid to warn the crew. With consoles at the knees of both pilot and copilot, the plane’s weather radar could have alerted them, both over Kamchatka and later over Sakhalin, to the fact that they were no longer flying over water, as they ought to have been. Weather radar has two modes—land mapping for clear weather, when it would be possible to look down and see water or land masses as well as the contours of the coast lines and the weather surveillance mode for cloudy weather, when it is necessary to “see through” clouds in order to detect dangerous thunderstorms. In land mapping mode, KAL 007 had only to make sure that the land mass of Kamchatka and the Island string of the Kurile chain would remain to the right. That night, however, KAL 007’s weather radar was probably not in land mapping mode, for the weather was inclement. The International Civil Aviation Organization’s meteorological analysis would conclude that, “there was extensive coverage of low, medium, and high level clouds over southern Kamchatka associated with an active cold front.(ICAO 1983, section 1.7.1., p. 9.)” ICAO’s analysis of KAL 007’s weather radar functioning would state, “it was concluded that the radar was not functioning properly or that the ground mapping capability was not used."<ref>ICAO 1983, p. 45. Section 2.9.1.</ref>

An indicator, according to ICAO, of lack of pilot awareness of their flight's deviation from route is the bantering and casual light conversation conducted at the times that awareness of deviation and location would have brought great tension. An example is the time (18:05 GMT) of Maj Ospovich observing KAL 007 while pulling in behind it, then locking on. KAL 007 Flight Crew: "I have heard that there is currency exchange at your airport." "In the airport currency exchange? What kind of money?" "Dollar to Korean money." "That's in the domestic building too, domestic building too."

'''August 31/September 1, 1983 was the worst possible night''' for KAL 007 to “bump the buffer” for a complexity of reasons—all of them ominous. It was but a few short hours before the time that Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, Soviet Chief of General Staff, had set for the test firing of the SS-25, an illegal (according to SALT II agreements) mobile Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The SS-25 was to be launched from Plesetsk, the launch site in northwest Russia which was used for test firing of solid fuel propellant ICBMs—24 minutes later to land in the Klyuchi target area on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Home to the Soviet Far East Fleet Inter Continental Ballistic Missile Nuclear Submarine base, as well as several air bases and Air Defense Missile launching batteries, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the southern coast of Kamchatka was bristling with weaponry.

Prior to his appointment as Marshal of the Soviet Union and Chief of the General Staff, General Ogarkov had been Chief of the Main Operation Directorate of the General Staff and, as such, had begun and had directed the Strategic Deception Department, or “Maskirovka,” which was charged with hiding Salt 2 violations from United States intelligence. On August 31/September 1, Soviet aerial “jammers” under Maskirovka were sent aloft to prevent United States intelligence eyes and ears from obtaining the illegal SS 25’s telemetry data. The SS-25 was in violation of the SALT II agreements on three counts:
<blockquote>
1. It was a new kind of ICBM (the first mobile one ever launched).
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
2. Its telemetry was encoded and encrypted. When a test ICBM reentry vehicle approaches the target, it emits vital data relating to its velocity, trajectory, throw-weight, and accuracy by means of coded (symbolized) and encrypted (scrambled) electronic bursts, which are then decoded and decrypted by Soviet on-ground intelligence gathering stations.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
3. The missile as a whole was too large for its reentry vehicle (dummy warhead), raising suspicion that the missile was being developed for new and more advanced warheads than allowable.
</blockquote>

==Stalk and Attack==

Soviet air defense forces had tracked the aircraft when it first entered airspace over the Kamchatka Peninsula; fighters were scrambled and fired several bursts in front of the plane's nose. Due to the lack of tracer rounds in the Soviet fighter's ammunition, the pilot of KAL 007 was unaware of the bursts. The fighters were ordered back to base when KAL 007 left Soviet airspace over the Sea of Okhotst.

After the Soviets admitted that they had indeed shot down KAL 007, they maintained that they had warned KAL 007 by radio and rounds of tracers. However the Soviet Top Secret Memos to Yuri Andropov revealed by Boris Yeltsin in 1992 [http://www.rescue007.org/TopSecretMemos.htm] contradicted this:

<blockquote>
"However in case the flight recorders shall become available to the western countries their data may be used for: - Claiming possibility of erroneous use by the crew of airborne navigational equipment to form various theories based on the data analysis; - ''Confirmation of no attempt by the intercepting aircraft to establish a radio contact with the intruder plane on 121.5 MHz and no tracers warning shots in the last section of the flight;''- Disputing our specification of the flight termination time (the time of the flight termination may be altered within a range from 30 to 40 seconds); - Confirmation of no intelligence mission by the plane on the strength of argument that within the last 30 minutes of flight during which the voice recorder registered oral communications of the crew nothing was said that might disclose the reason of incursion of the airplane into the airspace of the USSR. ...CONCLUSION In connection with above, it seems unnecessary to transfer the flight recorders to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) or any third party willing to decipher and analyze of their data. Head of the Group Lieutenant-General of Aviation MAKAROV Staff of the Group Lieutenant-General Engineer TICHOMIROV Major-General Engineer DIDENKO Major -General of Aviation STEPANOV Major -General of Aviation KOVTUN Corresponding Member of Academy of Sciences of the USSR FEDOSOV 28 November 1983" -
</blockquote>

When KAL 007 re-entered Soviet airspace, this time over Sakhalin Island, fighters were again scrambled with orders to "destroy the target." The Commander of the Soviet Far East District Air Defense Forces, General Valeri Kamensky,<ref>[http://www.rescue007.org/kaminski.htm Rescue 007: Kamenski Interview]</ref> was adamant that KAL 007 was to be destroyed even over neutral waters but only after positive identification showed it not to be a passenger plane. His subordinate, General Anatoli Kornukov, commander of Sokol Air base (later to become commander of the Russian Air Force), was adamant that there was no need to make positive identification as "the intruder" had already flown over Kamchatka.

<blockquote>
'''General [[Anatoly Kornukov]] (to Military District Headquarters-Gen. Kamenski): (5:47)'''

''"...simply destroy [it] even if it is over neutral waters? Are the orders to destroy it over neutral waters? Oh, well."''

'''Kamenski:'''

''We must find out, maybe it is some civilian craft or God knows who."''

'''Kornukov''':

''"What civilian? [It] has flown over Kamchatka! It [came] from the ocean without identification. I am giving the order to attack if it crosses the State border."''<ref>The complete transcript of the orders to destroy KAL 007 are available at [http://www.rescue007.org/stalk.htm Rescue 007:The Stalk].</ref>
</blockquote>

==="I knew this was a civilian plane"===
Until 1996, there had been a controversy concerning the identity of KAL 007 by the Soviets as a civilian passenger plane, rather than a U.S. RC-135 Reconnaissance plane. But that ended with the acknowledgment of Gennadie Osipovich, the SU-15 Interceptor pilot, that he indeed knew he was shooting down a civilian passenger plane and that he did see its navigation lights blinking.

<blockquote>
"From the flashing lights and the configuration of the windows, he recognized the aircraft as a civilian type of plane,....'I saw two rows of windows and knew that this was a Boeing,' he said. 'I knew this was a civilian plane. But for me this meant nothing. It is easy to turn a civilian type of plane into one for military use.''(New York Times, Dec. 9, 1996).
</blockquote>

At 18:26 GMT two air-to-air missiles from an [[Sukhoi Su-15|Su-15 Flagon]] piloted by Major Gennadi Osipovich were fired at the jumbo jet,<ref>See [http://www.rescue007.org/shootdown.htm Rescue 007:The Shootdown] for the combined U.S. electronic intercept and Soviet military communications of the actual shoot-down with photos of key personnel.</ref> causing it to spiral down from 35,000 feet and after a 12-minute descent crash into the sea near Moneron Island.

===The Osipovich–Air Controller KAL 007 Identity miscommunication===
In his September 9, 1996 interview Osipovich stated that he knew that it was a civilian Boeing from the double rows of windows. He told ground controllers that there were blinking lights, which he believed should have alerted them to the fact that the plane was a transport. But he did not tell them that the aircraft was specifically a Boeing 747. Also clear, is that KAL 007's blinking navigational lights were also not communicated upward:

<blockquote>
"From the flashing lights and the configuration of the windows, he recognized the aircraft as a civilian type of plane, he said. 'I saw two rows of windows and knew that this was a Boeing,' he said. 'I knew this was a civilian plane. But for me this meant nothing. It is easy to turn a civilian type of plane into one for military use.'... Osipovich also revealed that in the pressure of the moment, he did not provide a full description of the intruder to Soviet ground controllers. 'I did not tell the ground that it was a Boeing-type plane,' he recalled. 'They did not ask me.' He did, however, tell Soviet ground controllers that the plane had blinking lights on, which he says was an indication that it could be a transport plane."
</blockquote>

That the omission of the identity of KAL 007 as a Boeing by Osipovich is confirmed by ground personnel to the Combat controller, Lt. Col. Titovnin:

<blockquote>
'''Titovnin:''' The commander has given orders that if the border is violated—destroy [the target].

'''Lt. Col. Maistrenko:''' ...May [be] a passenger [aircraft]. All necessary steps must be taken to identify it.

'''Titovnin:''' Identification measures are being taken, but the pilot cannot see. It’s dark. Even now it’s still dark.

'''Maistrenko:''' Well, okay. The task is correct. If there are no lights—it cannot be a passenger [aircraft].
</blockquote>It is clear that attack was made on the intruder plane not because it was considered a continuing threat, but because it would soon escape into neutral waters.

<blockquote>
Kornukov: Oh, [obscenities] how long does it take him [Maj. Osipovich in his Su-15] to get into attack position. He is already getting out into neutral waters. Engage afterburner immediately.Bring in the MiG 23 as well...While you are wasting time, it will fly right out.
</blockquote>

===U.S. Electronic Intercept of Shootdown in Progress===
[[Image:Sukhoi15.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Sukhoi-15 TM interceptor]]
The following is the actual shootdown transmissions from the Sukhoi-15 as intercepted by the U.S. (NSA), in combination with the commands from Soviet Combat Air Control handed over by the Russian Federation ("Transcript of Communications. USSR Air Defence Command Centres on Sakhalin Island" of Information Paper 1. ICAO, 1993)
NSA Electronic intercepts have minute and second specified.

'''Osipovich: (18:22:02)''' The target is decreasing speed.

'''Osipovich: (18:22:17)''' I am going around it. I’m already moving in front of the target.

'''Titovnin:''' Increase speed, 805 [call sign of Osipovich’s Sukhoi-15].

'''Osipovich: (18:22:23)''' I have increased speed.

'''Titovnin:''' Has the target increased speed, yes?

'''Osipovich: (18:22:29)''' No, it is decreasing speed.

'''Titovnin:''' 805, open fire on target.

'''Osipovich: (18:22:42)''' It should have been earlier. How can I chase it? I’m already abeam of the target.

'''Titovnin:''' Roger, if possible, take up a position for attack.

'''Osipovich: (18:22:55)''' Now I have to fall back a bit from the target.

<blockquote>
Osipovich’s irritation with his controller reflects the fact that, in contrast with the freedom of initiative given to an American pilot in combat, a Soviet pilot must be “vectored” and commanded for almost every move he makes.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
KAL 007 leveled off at 18:23 at 35,000 feet. Now it would have only 3 minutes of flying time before Osipovich’s “Anab” medium range air-to-air missile would come streaking toward it from the rear. And, it was now General Kornukov’s turn to exhibit irritation and concern. From his communication to Gerasimenko, it is clear that KAL 007 was shot down by the Soviets not because it posed a threat to them, but because it was escaping.
</blockquote>

'''Gen. Kornukov:''' Oh, [obscenities] how long does it take him to get into attack position, he is already getting out into neutral waters. Engage afterburner immediately. Bring in the MiG 23 as well... While you are wasting time it will fly right out.

''With back-up from the MiG 23 (call sign 163), and at a distance of eight kilometers, Major Osipovich executes what he believes will be the destruction of KAL 007 (he has distanced himself from the target so that his interceptor will not be struck by fragments of the exploding passenger plane).''

'''Titovnin:''' 805, try to destroy the target with cannons.

'''Osipovich: (18:22:37)''' I am dropping back. Now I will try a rocket.

'''Titovnin:''' Roger.

'''MiG 23 (call sign 163): (18:23:49)''' Twelve kilometers to the target. I see both [the Soviet interceptor piloted by Osipovich and KAL 007].

'''Titovnin:''' 805, approach target and destroy target.

'''Osipovich: (18:24:22)''' Roger, I am in lock-on.

'''Titovnin:''' 805, are you closing on the target?

'''Osipovich: (18:25:11)''' I am closing on the target, am in lock-on. Distance to target is eight kilometers.

'''Titovnin:''' Afterburner.

'''Titovnin:''' AFTERBURNER, 805!

'''Osipovich: (18:25:16)''' I have already switched it on.

'''Titovnin:''' Launch!

'''Osipovich: (18:26:20)''' I have executed the launch.

'''Osipovich: (18:26:22)''' The target is destroyed.

'''Titovnin:''' Break off attack to the right, heading 360.

'''Osipovich: (18:26:27)''' I am breaking off attack.

There were no survivors found, and no bodies, body parts or tissues found on the surface of the sea. See [http://www.rescue007.org/rescue.htm Rescue 007:The Rescue] for transcripts of the Soviet Search and Rescue orders.

===See [[KAL 007: Soviet stalk, shoot down, and rescue mission orders transcripts]]: simultaneous five sourced===
not a reconstruction or re-enactment, but the dramatic unfolding of the events themselves, as they were recorded by all sides - American, Japanese, and Soviet

==Flight Data Recorder Chart showing the regaining of control of KAL 007==
This ICAO graphing of the deciphered Digital Flight Data Recorder of KAL 007's first minute and 44 seconds of post attack flight shows the regaining of control by Capt Chun. Following the '''"altitude"''' and '''"pitch"''' lines, Captain Chun's regaining control is evident through the immediate 113 second arc upward and dive downward, then the 10 second pull-up taking KAL 007 to pre missile attack altitude, and then the beginning gradual descent. Note the sharp decrease in '''"acceleration"''' as Capt. Chun levels off from the pull up - belying the Media descriptions that KAL 007 uncontrollably "plunged", "dived", "hurtled down", "cartwheeled", etc., to its destruction after it was hit.

[[Image:Chart8.jpg|left|thumb|450px]][[Image:Time magazine.jpg|Fallacious common media depiction contradicted by deciphering of Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder|right|thumb|200px]]

==Missile damage to people and plane==
What can be learned of the damage and lack of damage to KAL 007 is derived from its deciphered Black Box (Cockpit Voice Recorder and Digital Flight Data Recorder) tapes for the duration of the first minute and 44 seconds of its post detonation flight of at least 12 minutes, and from the Soviet real time communiques and radar trackings for the remainder of its flight .

====The Heatseeking missile====
In a two-second interval, the Soviet pilot launched two R-98 (ANAB) air-to-air medium range missiles. The second missile, a heat seeker, was designed to “home in” onto the exhaust of aircraft engines, exploding on contact. As the International Civil Aviation Organization analysis will show, this missile missed.

<blockquote>
'''''"The interceptor pilot [Osipovich] stated that the first missile hit near the tail, while the second missile took off half the left wing of the aircraft." (ICAO '93 report, pg. 39, 1.16.1.5)''' ''"The interceptor's pilot's statement that the second missile took off half of the left wing was probably incorrect. The missiles were fired with a two-second interval and would have detonated at an equal interval. The first detonated at 18:26:02 hours. The last radio transmissions from KE 007 to Tokyo Radio were between 18:26:57 and 18:27:15 hours using HF1 [High Frequency]. The HF 1 radio aerial of the aircraft was positioned in the left wing tip suggesting that the left wing tip was intact at this time. Also, the aircraft's manoeuvres after the attack did not indicate extensive damage to the left wing''." (ICAO '93 report, pg. 39, 1.16.1.
</blockquote>6).'''

'''In addition, the co-pilot reported to Capt. Chun twice during the flight after the heat seeker missile's detonation, ''"Engines normal, sir."'''''

====The proximity-fused radar guided missile====
The first missile was radar-controlled and proximity-fused, designed to detonate 50 meters from an aircraft. It exploded at exactly 18:26:02—exactly five hours, 26 minutes and 18 seconds after KAL 007 began its taxi to takeoff from Anchorage, Alaska. Sending fragments forward, this missile either severed or unraveled the crossover cable from the left inboard elevator to the right elevator. This with damage to one of the four Hydraulic systems (3 of the 4 systems were damaged or out), caused KAL 007 to ascend from 35,000 ft. to 38,250 ft. at which point Capt. Chun, disengaging the auto-pilot and taking manual control, was able to bring it down.

The fragments also caused punctures to the pressurized passenger cabin. All the punctures together amounted to a total of 1 3/4 sq. feet, too small, even together, for anyone to be sucked out by decompression. This was determined by the 11 seconds it took for the air to begin rushing out of the cabin before the alarm was set off picked up by the Cockpit Voice Recorder.<ref>ICAO '93, Information Paper 1., pg. 93</ref>

====Inside the Cabin====
Congressman [[Larry McDonald]], seated in an aisle seat of the first class section was most likely unharmed though there may well have been wounded or dead in the rear section struck by missile fragments. There was a sufficient supply of oxygen for comfortable breathing. Aviation Specialist Dr. Malcolm Brenner explains: '''“Crew members and passengers would have about one minute of expected useful consciousness unless they successfully began receiving oxygen from an oxygen mask'''.” Well within that critical “one minute of expected useful consciousness,” the oxygen masks had already deployed and, because of the upward pitch of the aircraft’s nose for most of its ascent leg of the 1 minute and 13 second arc upward, the masks were drifting back toward or behind the heads of the passengers, within easy reach (If airline regulations had been followed, adults would have donned their masks first before putting them on their children).

At 6:26:34, thirty-two seconds after missile detonation, the following consecutive messages were broadcast over the public address system in English, Korean, and Japanese: '''“Attention, Emergency Descent. Put out your cigarette. This is an Emergency Descent. Put the mask on your nose and mouth and adjust the headbands.”''' When one of the flight crew radioed Tokyo Airport, one minute and two seconds after missile detonation, his breathing was already "accentuated" as he was then speaking through the mike located in his oxygen mask,''' '' "Korean Air 007 ah… We are… Rapid compressions. Descend to 10,000.” ''''' Two expert witnesses testified at a Court of Appeals trial on the issue of pre-death pain and suffering. Captain James McIntyre, an experienced Boeing 747 pilot and aircraft accident investigator, testified that Flight 007's tail was struck by shrapnel from a proximity missile. This shrapnel probably caused a hole smaller than two feet in diameter, resulting in decompression but leaving the passengers sufficient time to don oxygen masks. McIntyre testified that, based upon his estimate of the extent of damage the aircraft sustained, all passengers survived the initial impact of the shrapnel from the missile explosion. In McIntyre's expert opinion, at least twelve minutes elapsed between the impact of the shrapnel and the crash of the plane, and the passengers remained conscious throughout.<ref>UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT Nos. 907, 1057 August Term, 1994 {Argued: April 5, 1995 Decided: July 12, 1995, Docket Nos. 94-7208,94-7218}</ref>

===Capabilities and Damage to Hydraulics===
With only one of the four redundancy designed hydraulic systems fully operational (making control difficult, but by no means impossible), and with wing flaps up, “control was reduced to the right inboard aileron and the innermost of the spoiler section on each side.” G. Norris and M. Wagner in Boeing (MBT Publishing, Osceolo, WI 1998) explain (pg. 128) the safety benefits of multiple redundant hydraulic systems for the Boeing 747,

<blockquote>
"The hydraulics provided actuation for all the primary flight controls; all secondary flight controls (except leading edge flaps); and landing gear retraction, extension, gear steering, and wheel braking. Systems 1 and 4 could be used for all purposes [KAL 007's hydraulic system no. 4 was undamaged], while systems 2 and 3 were normally used for flight control only... System 4 also had a third electrical power source. Each primary flight control axis received power from all four hydraulic systems."
</blockquote>

KAL 007 would exhibit a flight capability after the attack which would include a pull up to pre detonation altitude 0f 35,000 ft., a gradual descent until leveling out at 16,424 ft (5,000 meters), a flight of almost 5 minutes at that altitude and then slow spiral descent of Moneron Island, the only land mass in the whole Tatar straits. During this flight it was able also to negotiate turns. One of its four hydraulic systems evidenced no damage from the missile attack. There are three incidents where aircraft with one or even no hydraulic systems operational were able to fly and maneuver. In July 1971, Pan Am's flagship aircraft, a Boeing 747, registered N747PA, hit a light gantry upon take-off from San Francisco International Airport. The crew had misjudged the speed of the aircraft and the length of the runway. As the plane pulled up sharply in an attempt to clear it, the rear end of the fuselage came down on the gantry. The aircraft continued to take off and with the gantry stuck in its cargo area and with three of the hydraulic systems destroyed. The jumbo jet circled the airport and made a safe landing—still with the gantry stuck through its cargo area and only one hydraulic system operational. On July 19, 1989, Capt. Al Hanes flew United Flight 232 with zero hydraulic to an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa airport. The crew had limited control by using thrust modulation (symmetric thrust for pitch, differential thrust for yaw/roll). The aircraft eventually skidded of the runway and overturned in a field killing 110 of its 285 passengers and one of the 11 crew members. The third incidence involved the attempted shootdown of a DHL aircraft. On November 22, 2003, a missile took out portions of the left wing and collateral damage took out all the hydraulic systems. As in the case of the 1989 United Airlines Flight 232, the Captain could only use thrust to modify pitch, speed and altitude and vary throttles asymmetrically to control yaw and turn the aircraft. There were no casualties as the aircraft safely returned and landed at Baghdad International airport.

===Flight Capability Evaluation===
The measure of KAL 007 potential and actual controllability are the following 10 indications :

# Sufficient oxygen for pilot alertness (flight crew speaking through microphones within oxygen masks).
# All engines were operating normally (as reported twice by co-pilot to Capt. Chun after missile detonation).
# Electrical system was operative (otherwise the radio would not have operated).
# Demonstrated pilot ability to decrease speed of KAL 007 in its downward phase (If he would not have been able to do so, the aircraft would continue to increase its downward acceleration—only to collide with the water in from 2 to 2 1/2 minutes rather than maintain its over 12 minute post-detonation flight.'''
# KAL 007 was able to regain its pre-hit altitude almost exactly. (It is highly unlikely that KAL 007 regained exact altitude after its arc by chance.)'''
# KAL 007 was able to regain its pre-missile hit rate of forward acceleration'''.
# Captain Chun was able to bring KAL 007’s nose (pitch) to the plane’s exact level of flight.'''
# For over 4 minutes (18:31 - 18:35), KAL 007 maintained level flight altitude of 5,000 meters only to begin a spiral descent over tiny Moneron Island, 3 1/2 miles E-W by 4 1/2 miles N-S - the only land mass in the whole Tatar straits.'''
# Material evidence that passengers had enough time to prepare for emergency water ditching [http://www.rescue007.org/faq.htm#12]'''
# Contrary to the statement of interceptor pilot that his missile had taken off the left wing of KAL 007, his missile had in fact missed, and the left wing was intact (all engines normal, noted ability to maneuver, high frequency broadcast made after attack using HF antenna 1. located on tip of left wing)'''

===Soviet Command response to Post- Detonation Flight===
Contrary to what would have been expected to the Interceptor pilot's call, "Target destroyed", the Soviet command, from General on down indicated surprise and consternation at KAL 007's continued flight, and ability to regain its altitude and maneuver. This consternation continued through to KAL 007's subsequent level flight at altitude 16,424 ft. and then through its spiral descent over Moneron Island.

'''18:28''': Lt. Col. Novoseletski: Well, what is happening, what is the matter, who guided him in, he locked on, why didn’t he shoot it down?

'''18:28''' Lt. Col. Gerasimenko: The target turned to the north. Kornukov: The target turned to the north?

'''18:29''' Kornukov: Well, I am asking, give the order to the Controller, what is wrong with you there? Have you lost your tongues?

'''18:29''': Kornukov: Well, I understand, I do not understand the result, why is the target flying? Missiles were fired. Why is the target flying? [obscenities] Well, what is happening?

'''18:29''': Lt. Col. Gerasimenko: Comrade General, I gave the order to the Chief of Staff, the Chief of Staff to the Controller, and the Controller is giving the order to…

'''18:30''': Kornukov: Well, how long does it take for this information to get through, well, what, [you] cannot ask the results of firing the missiles, where, what, did [he] not understand or what?

'''18:32''': Kornukov: Altitude...what is altitude of our fighter and the altitude of the target? Quickly. the altitude of the target and the altitude of the fighter?...
Why don't you say anything?...Gerasimenko!...

'''18:33''': Gerasimenko: Gerasimenko. Altitude is 5,000 [16,424 ft.]. Kornukov: 5,000 already?

'''18:34''': Gerasimenko: Affirmative, turning left, right, apparently it is descending. Kornukov: Destroy it, use the 23 to destroy it, I said!

==The Mystery of the Missing Minutes Solved==

At the Altitude of 35,000 feet at which KAL 007 was attacked, it should have taken 2 to 2 1/2 minutes to reach the surface of the sea. This figure is arrived at by both simulator replication and actual occurrences of planes that have fallen to their destruction. Yet, it had taken 12 minutes for KAL 007 to have gotten from 35,000 feet to 1,000 feet at which it could no longer be tracked due to the curvature of the earth.

For comparison, a China Airlines jumbo jet fell 32,000 feet in less than two minutes after all four of its engines failed but the pilot restarted them and flew 500 miles with a damaged tail before making an emergency landing in San Francisco. The Boeing 747 fell from a cruising altitude of 41,000 feet to 9,000 feet. The plane fell 32,000 feet in something less than two minutes. The rate of descent would have been 267 feet per second. Had KAL 007 "plummeted" toward the sea at that rate, its fall would have taken about two minutes and 11 seconds - not 12 minutes.

On September 1, Secretary of State George Shultz had stated: "At 1826 hours the Soviet pilot reported that he fired a missile and the target was destroyed. At 1830 hours [or 4 minutes later] the Korean aircraft was reported by radar 5,000 meters [16,424 feet]. At 1838 hours [12 minutes after being hit] the Korean plane disappeared from the radar screen." Most people, including researchers and media personnel, assumed that "disappeared from the radar screen" meant that KAL 007 had exploded and disintegrated. But the true explanation would become available from 1992 onwards.

The mystery of the disparity in time was solved by the handover by the Russian Federation of the Black Box and the real time Russian military communications of the shootdown. KAL 007 had not "plunged" down after the attack. It had gradually descended for 4 minutes after the attack and then leveled off at 16,424 feet (18;30-31 GMT), and at this altitude continued its post-attack flight for almost 5 minutes (18:35 GMT), ''and only then'' continue a descent in spirals until being tracked at 1,000 feet above sea level and 2.6 miles from Moneron Island.

<blockquote>
'''Gen. Kornukov (18:32)''': Tell the 23 [MiG]... afterburner. Open fire, destroy the target, then land at home base.

'''Lt. Col. Gerasimenko (acting commander, 41st Fighter Regiment, viewing radar)''': Roger

'''Kornukov:''' Altitude... What is the altitude of our fighter and the altitude of the target? Quickly. The altitude of the target and the altitude of the fighter!

...Why don't you say anything? Gerasimenko!

'''Gerasimenko (18:33):''' Gerasimenko. Altitude of target is 5,000.

'''Kornukov:''' 5,000 already?

'''Gerasimenko (18:34'''): Affirmative, turning left, right, apparently it is descending.
</blockquote> "The last plotted radar position of the target was 18:35 hours at 5,000 meters." (ICAO 1993, pg. 53, para. 2.15.8)

===See [[The Soviet/ U.S naval confrontation]] for real-time photos and a full understanding of the Soviet Harassment of US Search and Rescue Efforts===

==Initial Safe landing Report==

After Action Report MapRight after KAL 007 was reported missing, there was a report conveyed via phone by Orville Brockman, the Washington office spokesman of the Federal Aviation Administration to Tommy Toles, the press secretary of Cong. Larry McDonald. This report was that the FAA representative in Tokyo,. Dennis Wilhelm had been informed by a Mr. Tanaka of the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau (Counter-part to the FAA) that "Japanese self-defense radar force confirms that the Hokkaido radar followed Air Korea to a landing in Soviet territory on the island of Sakhalinska S-a-k-h-a-l-i-n-s-k-a and it is confirmed by the manifest that Congressman McDonald is on board". This report would indicate that KAL 007 had made a 180 degree turn as it would have had to do so to land on Sakhalinsk Island after having already passed it (as it had been attacked in international waters just outside the 12 mile Soviet claimed territorial border west of Sakhalin), and it could, on the other hand indicate the eastern heading portion of KAL 007's spiral descent around 4 1/2NM by 3 1/2NM Moneron Island to a landing east of Moneron and West of Sakhalin (Moneron and Sakhalin islands are slightly less than 24 naut. miles from each other and the lines of their respective 12 mile territorial borders intersect - see Task Force 71 After Action Report map below). The statement "to a landing in Soviet territory on the island of Sakhalinska" under this view would describe a report by Japnese self-defense force, and possibly by its reporting radar station, which was inexact but rather to indicate the general area in this sector. The Hokkaido tapes are not in the public domain.

==American response==
Initially the news flashed in the early morning hours of September 1 would report that KAL 007 had disappeared over the Pacific; it would be a matter of hours before the world would know something more ominous. President Reagan, vacationing at his California ranch, would cut it short and fly to Washington. Just before boarding Air Force One, Reagan hinted that the actions by the Soviets were somewhat worse than their invasion of Afghanistan in 1979: "While events in Afghanistan and elsewhere have left few illusions about the willingness of the Soviet Union to advance its interests through violence and intimidation, all of us had hoped that certain irreducible standards of civilized behavior nonetheless obtained," he declared. "But this event shocks the sensibilities of people everywhere...What can we think of a regime that so broadly trumpets its vision of peace and global disarmament and yet so callously and quickly commits a terrorist act to sacrifice the lives of innocent human beings?" <ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,926169,00.html</ref>

Secretary of State George Shultz would have a meeting in Madrid, Spain later in the week with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko on the subject of arms control. For the previous few months the Reagan administration felt that things were opening up between the United States and the Soviet Union; the shooting of KAL 007 set things back. Instead of talking arms control, Shultz made heated demands of Gromyko as to what happened to the plane. Jeane Kirkpatrick, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and at the behest of Reagan, placed a large television in the Security Council and played the recorded tapes of the fighter pilots and ground control for the world to hear:
:''"I see it, visually and on radar . . . The A.N.O. [air navigational lights] are burning. The [strobe] light is flashing . . . What are instructions? . . . I'm dropping back. Now I will try a rocket . . . I am closing on the target . . . I have executed the launch. The target is destroyed."''
The Soviet delegation had their backs turned towards the screen even as they repeated the ''Tass'' statement on the loss of the plane.

Reagan would spend much of two days drafting a carefully-prepared speech which he presented on national television September 5. Calling it a "[[crime against humanity]]" that had "absolutely no justification, either legal or moral," he used the speech as an indictment of the Soviets in the court of public opinion, using the word "massacre" six times to describe it. Reagan asserted in a key passage "This attack was not just against ourselves or the Republic of Korea. This was the Soviet Union against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among people everywhere." <ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,954035-2,00.html</ref>

On September 15, 1983, President Reagan would order the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to revoke the license of Aeroflot Soviet Airlines to operate flights to and from the US. Aeroflot flights to North America were consequently available only through Canadian and Mexican cities. Aeroflot service to the U.S. was not restored until April 29, 1986. In addition, Reagan failed to follow through on his tough talk by employing any of the means possible to punish the Soviets, such as trade sanctions. In fact, over time, his administration increased trade with the Soviet Union. Already on September 1, 1984, the Associated Press reported: “Secretary of State George Shultz says the Soviet Union’s shooting down of a South Korean airliner one year ago … should not preclude improvement of relations.”

Searches for the remains of the plane, believed lost in the waters to the southwest of Sakhalin Island, proved fruitless; U.S., Korean, and Japanese search vessels were harassed continually by Soviet vessels.<ref>http://www.rescue007.org/photo_essay.htm</ref>

==Soviet actions==
[[Image:TimecoverSept1983.jpg|right|thumb|200px|The Security Council Meeting at the United Nations as covered by ''Time''; the photo shows a stunned council listening to the recorded tapes of the Soviet fighter pilots.]]
[[Image:RC-135.jpg|right|thumb|200px|RC-135 surveillance aircraft]]
The Soviets were tight-lipped about the affair for two days. Their only response was through the ''Tass'' news agency, in which it was stated that the plane was on a spying mission and was shot down after crossing over their territory.

Then from the Kremlin came the order: the Soviets officially declared that KAL 007 was on a spy mission, and as a spy plane it was deliberately shot down. All of the talk of innocent passengers lost was dismissed as "hulla-balloo", and they said that they were prepared to do it again.

Thinking that they may have made a bad public-relations impression, on September 9 Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, the Soviet Chief of Staff, went on television to give the Kremlin's view of what happened, repeating the spy plane story, but insisting the plane had been warned to land first. Tracing the plane's route with a pointer on a map behind him, he explained that ground controllers had mixed KAL 007 with a U.S. reconnaissance plane, and the order to shoot it down came not from the Kremlin, but from a far east commander in a military decision, raising a question as to whether or not the Soviet civilian leadership had actual control over its military, and leaving the world to wonder if this "hair trigger mentality" could result in a major conflagration.<ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,954035-7,00.html</ref> Needless to say, Ogarkov's television appearance did little to absolve the Soviets of responsibility.

===Flight of the RC-135===
During the early-morning hours of August 31-September 1, a United States Air Force RC-135 Cobra Ball reconnaissance plane was engaged in a mission to gather electronic intelligence, flying a "racetrack" course at sea off the Kamchatka Peninsula. It was tasked with capturing the telemetry of the [[SS-25]] missile, illegal according to [[Salt ll]] agreements, which the Soviets were to launch that night from Plesetsk in north west Russia to come down in the Klyuchi target range on Kamchatka. For hours the Soviets were aware of this flight, having picked it up on radar while in its inward track (i.e. the track closest to the coastline) before it would disappear from the radar on its outward track. The racetrack course was repeated several times during the night until KAL 007 arrived on the scene, following closely the inward track of the RC-135; since the jumbo jet did not veer off course as the Soviets expected it to do (assuming they thought it was the RC-135), they had an opportunity to intercept it.

Whether the RC -135, configured as a Cobra Ball, was able to pick up the "chatter" from Soviet command posts and capture the radar stations "lighting up" one after another tracking the "intruder" aircraft, as an RC-135 configured as a Rivet Joint could, has been contested. If it had been able to do so, it would also have known the reason for the heightened Soviet activity, and could have warned its own immediate command -the Strategic Air Command for the flight crew and the National Security Agency for the Electronic specialists (the "Ravens"), Anchorage Air Traffic Control (which would warn KAL 007), and even the President's Office through initiating a "Critic Report". A Critic report is the highest intelligence report that intelligence agencies can issue. Being sent at Flash precedence, it overrides everything else on the net. A ground station would be unable to override the Critic. The Critic reaches its designated receiver within 10 minutes (often less) - thus the disaster would have been be averted (The KAL 007 Massacre, Franz A. Kadell, Western Goals, Virginia, 1985 pg. 107).

Click here [http://www.rescue007.org/RC_135.htm] for two reports by RC-135 crew members (one of which flew back on return flight with actual crew of the RC-135 of that night) that indicate that KAL 007 was known by the RC-135 listening in to Soviet ground stations to have intruded into Russian airspace.

There has always been a question concerning the capability, and the actualization of that capability, of the RC-135 to become aware of KAL 007 as it penetrated into Soviet air space and to warn it. During the civil litigation for damages to the families of the victims of the shoot-down, Chief Justice of the District Court of Washington, D.C., Aubrey Robinson, ruled out legal recourse to finding out on grounds that it would endanger National Security. He allowed only, on April 18, 1984, questions to the military, "but only in respect to uncovering the legal duty [of the military] to warn or advise civilian aircraft" (KAL 007: The Cover-Up, David E. Pearson,Summit Books, London, New York, 1987, pg. 305)

.The RC-135 was manufactured by Boeing, and is a military variant of the civilian 707 passenger jet. Configured in several versions, this aircraft was used to conduct airborne surveillance from the 1960s through to the mid-1990s, and many were on routine patrols in the western Pacific Ocean monitoring Soviet activity.

Seymour Hersh, writing in his book ''The Target is Destroyed'', mentioned what was called "psychological operations" (PSYOPS) programs carried out by the United States against the Soviets. These programs included massive naval exercises and simulated attacks carried out in proximity of critical Soviet bases. This, combined with the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] (SDI) initiated by President Reagan, Cold War tensions rose to high levels. Just a scant four weeks from the KAL 007 disaster, operation ''Able Archer'' was conducted by the United States and its European allies; a reflection seen on Soviet radars was interpreted by many to be an actual first strike by intercontinental ballistic missiles. Only the interpretation by a Soviet general that it was in reality a computer glitch from a malfunctioning satellite prevented a possible nuclear war.

==Conspiracy theories==
[[Image:Ogarkov.JPG|Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov on September 9, 1983, giving the Soviet version of the shoot-down of Korean Airlines Flight 007|right|thumb|250px]]
'''Spy plane theory:''' According to this theory, KAL 007 was "bait" used by the United States to test Soviet response to a flight intrusion into their borders; the RC-135 would be listening in on the response, while the civilian plane would expected to be released from any forced landing, its crew claiming innocence due to being "lost".

The fact of the matter was the RC-135 was a virtually-windowless plane; the Soviet fighter pilots reported the contact as having multiple windows. Major Osipovich, the man who fired the fatal shot, stated he knew it was a civilian plane:
<blockquote>
"I saw two rows of windows and knew that this was a Boeing. I knew this was a civilian plane. But for me this meant nothing. It is easy to turn a civilian type of plane into one for military use." (New York Times interview, September 9, 1996).
</blockquote>

A Boeing 747, at nearly twice the size of an RC-135 and with its distinctive cockpit hump, is unmistakable for anything else in the air, and in 1983 none were in service with the U.S. military.

'''Assassination theory:''' The most prominent passenger on KAL 007 was a United States Congressman from Georgia, Democrat [[Larry McDonald]], a fiery anti-communist who was recently made the president of the John Birch Society, an organization dedicated to exposing the truth of communism and the Soviet Union. The theory goes was that the Soviets had wanted to silence McDonald, and being aware of his presence on the flight (he was on his way to Seoul for the 30th year anniversary of the U.S./South Korean Mutual Defense Treaty) sent the fighters aloft; it was sheer luck that the plane had drifted into Soviet airspace. About fifteen minutes behind was another flight, KAL 015, carrying to the anniversary celebration senators Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina), Steve Symms (R-Idaho), and Congressman Caroll Hubbard (D-Kentucky), all anti-communist like McDonald and also attending the ceremony in Seoul.

The theory specified that the Soviets knew of McDonald's activities and wished to silence him, despite the presence of several more tempting targets on the other flight. There is no known evidence that the Soviets were even aware that McDonald was on the plane at all. They would find out after the news media broke the story on September 1.

====Intentional Deviation====
There are three intentional deviation theories, the third related to the Assassination theory.

1. One theory posits the pilots making an intentional deviation shortening the route to Seoul by crossing Kamchatka, saving fuel in the process. Though considered by several law firms in the damage litigations of the civil trial, this theory has been generally rejected because of the dangers involved, and because of the weakness of personal motivation presented to the pilots.

2. The second theory, is that of Capt. Parks, the pilot of the accompanying flight to KAL 007, KAL 015. He was a former superior officer in the South Korean Air Force and personal friend of Capt. Chun, the pilot of KAL 007, and believes his theory fit the personal profile of his friend. Park believes that the coordinates for the flight, or, conversely, properly entered, but when the aircraft had already rolled from "ramp position" had been improperly entered into the Inertial Navigation System (INS) of KAL 007. Chun realized this only when in flight, and rather than dump fuel and return to Anchorage (required by KAL), and face fine, possible demotion and humiliation, decided to "wing it" by Magnetic Heading, rather than the INS, and thus strayed into Soviet territory.

3. The third theory suggests a possible intentional deviation as part of a plan that the pilots may not have been aware of: The pilots set the autopilot mode to INS but only after the flight had passed outside of the permissible 7.5 nautical mile (NM) "Desired Track Capture Envelope" to switch to INS from the Magnetic Heading. This occurred after the Cairn Mountain, Alaska, way point. At Cairn Mountain, the flight was already 6.5 miles off course but still within the 7.5 envelope. If Air Traffic Control for the Cairn Mt. sector had notified KAL 007 that they had deviated from the course, they could have still corrected the situation by switching the NAV mode from Magnetic Heading to INS. Of all the flights that day, Anchorage Air Traffic Control for the sector failed to mark the positions of only two - KAL 007 and KAL 015. Congressman McDonald was aboard KAL 007; Senators Jesse Helms and Steven Symms and Congressman Carroll Hubbard Jr. were aboard KAL 015. This failure of Air Traffic Control to mark down the position of KAL 007 and KAL 015 (and only those two flights) is both unfortunate and curious.

==The Case for Passenger Survival and Abduction==
Contrary to the Interceptor pilot's report that "the target is destroyed", the Russian Federation handover of the original real-time communications of the shootdown show horrified Soviet commanders viewing, and relating what they are viewing, KAL 007 leveling out at 5,000 meters (at 18.31) and continuing at that altitude for over 4 minutes (18:35), turning north, approaching tiny Moneron Island (4 1/2 miles by 3 1/2miles), the only island in the whole Tatar straits, and then making a spiral descent.
<blockquote>
General Anatoly Kornukov, Commander of Sokol Airbase on Sakhalin: "Well, I understand, I do not understand the result, why is the target flying? Missiles were fired. Why is the target flying? [obscenities] Well, what is happening?"
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Lt. Col. Novoseletski: "Well, what is happening, what is the matter, who guided him in, he locked on, why didn’t he shoot it down?"
</blockquote>

Debriefed former Soviet military men who had served on the Soviet maritime across from [[Sakhalin]] and [[Moneron Island]] and who had immigrated to Israel reported that the Soviet radar stations, including those at Komsomolsk-na-Amura and Edinka, tracked KAL 007 in its spiral descent until it was 1,000 feet above sea level (the point at which Soviet radar could not capture the aircraft due to curvature of the earth). This information was conveyed to the Minority Staff (Republican) under Senator Jesse Helms of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations which issued in its Republican Staff Report [draft] of 1991 <ref>http://www.rescue007.org/republican_staff_study.htm][http://www.rescue007.org/faq.htm#8]</ref> this concluding statement - <blockquote>
'''“KAL 007 PROBABLY DITCHED SUCCESSFULLY, THERE MAY HAVE BEEN SURVIVORS, THE SOVIETS HAVE BEEN LYING MASSIVELY, AND DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS NEED TO BE MADE TO RETURN THE POSSIBLE SURVIVORS.”'''
</blockquote>

====Deception regarding the crash site====
Contrary to Russian insistence that they had no knowledge of where KAL 007 had come down, and had maintained lack of knowledge all through the Search and Rescue operations lasting more than two months, they knew exactly where KAL 007 was coming down, and where it had come down, which was over, and then near, Moneron Island. Here is what the Soviet high command saw and said as they saw KAL 007 spiraling down over Moneron Island in Soviet territorial waters:
<li>18:33 GMT - KAL 007 is seen by Soviet radar at 5,000 meters at initial stage of spiral descent over Moneron Island.

'''Lt. Col. Gerasimenko'''. ''"Altitude of target is 5,000."''

'''General Kornukov:''' ''"5,000 already?"''

'''Gerasimenko (18:34'''): ''"Affirmative, turning left, right, apparently it is descending."'' (ICAO '93, Information Paper No. 1, pg. 156)

<li>18:34 GMT - Last recorded location of KAL 007 in spiral descent over Moneron Island is within Soviet territorial waters. ''"Where is it now", "It is in the Moneron area", "In our territory?", "Affirmative"'' (ICAO '93, Information Paper No.1, pg. 156)

====Immediate Soviet mission to Moneron====
Within minutes of the shootdown, two missions involving rescue helicopters, KGB patrol boats, and civilian ships were ordered by the Soviets to [[Moneron Island]].<ref>http://www.rescue007.org/rescue.htm</ref>

[[Image:Mi-8.jpg|Soviet Mi-8 Rescue Helicopter|right|thumb|200px]]

'''Gen. Strogov (Deputy Commander for the Soviet Far East Military District):'''
''"The border guards. What ships do we now have near Moneron Island, if they are civilians, send [them] there immediately."''

'''Lt. Col Novoseletski:'''
''"Prepare whatever helicopters there are. Rescue helicopters."''

'''Titovnin:'''
''"Rescue?"''

'''Novoseletski:'''
''"Yes. And there will probably be a task set for the area where the target was lost."''

'''Titovnin:'''
''Roger. Is this to be done through your SAR [Search and Rescue]?''

'''Novoseletski:'''
''Eh?''

'''Titovnin:'''
''Assign the task to Chaika through your SAR, Comrade Colonel, Khomutovo [Civilian and military airport at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City in southern Sakhalin] does not come under us and neither does Novoaleksandrovska. We have nothing here.''

'''Novoseletski:'''
''Very well.''

'''Titovnin:'''
''Novoaleksandrovska must be brought to readiness and Khomutovo. The border guards and KGB are at Khomutovo.''

<blockquote>
“Chaika” is the call sign of the Far East Military District (FEMD) Air Force Command Post. Consequently, this first documented rescue mission could only be effected by order of the FEMD, which was second in jurisdiction to the Soviet Far East Military Theatre of Operations. Neither the shooting down nor the rescue of Flight 007 was, therefore, of local decision.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Apparently, neither Smirnykh Air Force Base in central Sakhalin (under the Tactical Air Command and from where the MiG23 ordered to guarantee destruction of KAL 007 was based) and Sokol Air Force base in southern Sakhalin (under the Air Defense Command where Osipovich and his SU-15 were based) had any available rescue helicopters. Therefore, the jurisdictional step up to the Far East Military District Air Force was required to bring the out-of-jurisdiction Khomutovo Air Base into action. Khomutovo was the civilian and military airbase at Yuzhno (Southern) Sakhalinsk City.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
The second mission involved the civilian ships in the vicinity of Moneron as well as the border guards. This mission was ordered at 18:55; just 29 minutes after missile impact and 17 minutes after KAL 007 had reached "point zero altitude" (1,000 feet above sea level and the point and which Soviet radar on the Siberian Maritime could no longer track KAL 007 because of the curvature of the earth).
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
(That at least one Soviet naval rescue mission had been ordered even before KAL007 had reached the surface of the waters off Moneron is attested by the following - taken from the Izvestia testimony of a Soviet Naval Specialist who had been involved in the rescue mission: "When we learned that the aircraft had been attacked, and that weapons had been used, we began to analyse when it might possibly come down. Ships were ordered to the ''anticipated'' [emphasis added] area. Several ships headed there at once at full speed...")
</blockquote>

'''Gen. Strogov: (18:54)'''''Hello… Hello, Titovnin… You s... [obscenities] I’ll lock you up in the guard house. Why don’t you pick up the phone?''

'''Titovnin:'''''Comrade General, everyone was busy here.''

'''Strogov:'''
''You have nothing there to be busy with. Busy! What kind of nonsense is that? So, where is Kornukov?''

'''Titovnin:'''
''Kornukov is here.''

'''Strogov''':
''Put him on the phone.''

'''Titovnin:'''
''One minute. He is reporting to Kamenski, Comrade General.''

<blockquote>
General Strogov was Deputy Commander for the Far East Military District. General Kamenski was Commander of Air Defense for the Far East Military District. Here is clear evidence that the shoot-down of KAL 007 and the rescue of its passengers were not decisions made by local commanders but emanated from the highest echelons of the Soviet military. See [[Soviet Officers of KAL 007 Shootdown]] for the known and probable line up the hierarchy.
</blockquote>

'''Strogov: (18:55)'''

''So, what you need to do now. Contact these ... [obscenities], these sailors, these, what do you ... [obscenities]?''

'''Titovnin:'''
''Border guards?''

'''Strogov:'''
''Huh?''

'''Titovnin:'''
''Border guards?''

[[Image:Ship 1.jpg|The Mikhail Merchink: believed to have operated in Soviet waters between Moneron and Sakhalin shortly after shootdown and main civilian ship used by Soviets in later simulated search for KAL 007.Photographed by Logan Cleek during search|right|thumb|300px]]

'''Strogov:'''
''Well, the civilian sailors.''

'''Titovnin:'''
''Understood.''

'''Strogov:'''
''The border guards. What ships do we now have near Moneron Island, if they are civilians, send [them] there immediately.''

<blockquote>
There is consistency of Strogov’s site identification with Kornukov’s. Both generals simply specify it as “Moneron.” Ships that are already “near Moneron” are sent to Moneron itself. This transcript puts the lie to the Soviet claims, from Day One and on, that they did not know where the plane went down, as well as exposing the Soviet deception in staging their search and rescue operations in various parts of international waters. Among the first proponents of this lie was Marshal Nicolay Ogarkov, U.S.S.R. Chief of General Staff, when he stated on September 9, 1983, at a press conference, "We could not give the precise answer about the spot where it [KAL 007] fell because we ourselves did not know the spot in the first place." The United States (and the rest of the world for the matter) had been effectively and tragically duped!
</blockquote>

From V. Chebrikov, KGB head, and D. Ustinov, Defense Minister, to Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of USSR, December 1983 (see fuller text below):

<blockquote>
"The fact that the recorders are in possession of the USSR shall be kept secret...
As far as we are aware neither the US nor Japan has any information on the flight recorders. We have made necessary efforts in order to prevent any disclosure of the information in future.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
"Looking to your approval.
D.Ustinov, V.Chebrikov"
</blockquote>

====Moneron====
[[Image:Moneron Island 2.jpg|right|thumb|300px| Moneron Island]]
Moneron is an island just 4 1/2 miles long and 3 1/2 miles wide 24 miles due west of Sakhalin Island; the only land mass in the whole Tatar (Tsushima) straits. On its east side, its Soviet claimed 12 mile territorial boundary meets the west side of Sakhalin Island's 12 mile territorial boundary so that there is a contiguous 24 mile expansive of Soviet territory. It was in this area that reports coming to the Israeli Research Centre for Prisons, Psych-Prisons and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the USSR indicated that KAL 007 had made a water ditching. And it was in this area that there was a southerly flowing current (West Sakhalin Convergent Current) to the Tsushima straits needed to explain the fact that some debris wound up on Hokkaido, Japan beaches ''south'' of Moneron. The Allied search operations were confined to ''international'' waters to the ''north'' of Moneron where the current of the Tsushima flows north rather than south.

The U.S. Search and Rescue mission was prevented by the Soviets from entering their territorial water anywhere around Moneron. Rear Admiral Walter T. Piotti (Photo [http://www.rescue007.org/docs/TheGreatRussianRuse.pdf]), Commander of Task Force 71 of U.S. 7th Fleet, stated in his After Action Report (Department of the Navy, Commander, Surface Combat Force Seventh Fleet. CTF75/N32:kpm,4730,Ser 011, 15 November 1983)

[[Image:Admiral_Piotti.jpg|Rear Admiral Walter T. Piotti Jr. Commander of Task Force 71 of 7th Fleet|left|thumb|150px]]

<blockquote>
"Had TF [task force] 71 been permitted to search without restriction imposed by claimed territorial waters, the aircraft stood a good chance of having been found. No wreckage of KAL 007 was found. However, the operation established, with a 95% or above confidence level, that the wreckage, or any significant portion of the aircraft, does not lie within the probability area outside the 12 NM area claimed by the Soviets as their territorial limit.”</blockquote>

(For the full extent the naval confrontation between the Soviet and U.S. forces, see [[The Soviet/ U.S naval confrontation]])

At a hearing of ICAO on Sept.15, 1983, Lynn Helms, Federal Aviation Administrator, stated:

<blockquote>
"the U.S.S.R. has refused to permit search and rescue units from other countries to enter Soviet territorial waters to search for the remains of KAL 007. Moreover, the Soviet Union has blocked access to the likely crash site and has refused to cooperate with other interested parties, to ensure prompt recovery of all technical equipment, wreckage and other material."<ref>Congressional Record, Sept. 20, 1983,pgs S12462-S12464.</ref>
</blockquote>
[[Image:After Action Report Map.jpg|After Action Report Map|right|thumb|300px]]

===No bodies or luggage===
It was thought that since the Soviets claimed that they had retrieved no bodies, body parts or tissues from the surface of the sea in their territorial waters and the U.S. search and rescue operation yielded the same lack in the international waters where they could search, then the bodies of the occupants of KAL 007 would be found below the sea trapped in their watery tomb, the remains of KAL 007. Yet, former Soviet Divers reporting in ''Izvestia'' (Dec. 1991) of their visit to KAL 007 at the bottom of the sea, beginning 15 days after the shootdown (while Soviet vessels above and a few miles away in international waters pretended to be searching for KAL 007) were amazed that out of a passenger plane carrying 269 people, there was only one torso. (Reports to the Israel Research Center for Prisons, Psych-Prisons, and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the U.S.S.R. were that passengers and crew were abducted and then KAL 007 sunk to simulate an aircraft having crashed into the sea).

'''One of the divers, Viyacheslav Popov:'''

<blockquote>
"I will confess that we felt great relief when we found out that there were no bodies at the bottom. Not only no bodies; there were also no suitcases or large bags. I did not miss a single dive. I have quite a clear impression: The aircraft was filled with garbage, but there were really no people there. Why? Usually when an aircraft crashes, even a small one... As a rule there are suitcases and bags, or at least the handles of the suitcases."
</blockquote>

'''Another of the divers, V. Zakharchenko:'''

<blockquote>
“But the main thing was not what we had seen there but what we had not seen—the divers had found practically no human bodies or remains…”.
</blockquote>

'''Capt. Mikhail Girs:'''

<blockquote>
“So we were ready to encounter a virtual cemetery. But one submergence went by, then the
second, and then the third...During the entire rather lengthy period of our work near Moneron,
I and my people had maybe ten encounters with the remains of Boeing passengers. No more
than that.”(There is no way of ascertaining from this testimony if the “ten encounters” were with ten separate human remains, that is, individuals, or, more likely, ten encounters with a lesser number. It is entirely possible that these encounters were with fragments from the same individual).
</blockquote>

According to Izvestia, the divers had only 10 encounters with passenger remains (tissues and body parts) including one partial torso. ICAO also interviewed a number of these divers for its 1993 report: "In addition to the scraps of metal, they observed personal effects, such as clothing, documents and wallets. Although some evidence of human remains was noticed by the divers, they found no bodies."

[[Image:Ship 2.jpg|The Georgi Kozmin. Released Navy Department, Logan Cleek, photographer|right |thumb|300px]]

===The Deployment of the Soviet simulated search fleet===
At the same time that the Soviets were harassing the U.S. search efforts, the Soviets were conducting simulated search operations themselves. Admiral Vladimir Vasilyevich Sidorov, Commander of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, directed the simulated (see below) Soviet Search and Salvage operations, having the civilian divers as well as the military under his direct command.

The main Soviet salvage ship was the '''Mikhail Mirchink ''' (pictured above). Designated an S.P.D., Self Propelled Drill ship, the Mirchink was a Swedish built vessel having the great advantage of being able, thanks to its gyros, to stabilize itself dynamically over one spot, regardless of wind or waves.The Mirchink had been positioned mainly within Soviet waters about eleven nautical miles north of Moneron. More than nineteen underwater operations had been performed from her decks. The divers working off the Mirchink had been flown, immediately after the shootdown, by helicopter from their deep-sea assignment off the shores of Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia and then by transport to the port of Kholmsk on the island of Sakhalin for their “Flight 007” assignment.

The '''Hydronaut (Gidronaut'''), was a combined search and fishing boat, which was mother ship to two small two-man submersibles, the Tinro 2 and the Okeanolog. It's divers had also been hastily flown, this time from Crimean Sevestapol on the Black Sea shores of the Ukraine. The Tinro 2 made most of the dives. Its designer and commander was Capt. Mikhail Girs (see below).

The '''Georgi Kozmin''' was the third ship but had been working before the two civilian manned ships. It had two manned and two unmanned submersibles and its divers were all military. The Georgi Kozmin had come from Soviet Gavan, the main naval port across the Tatar Straits from Sakhalin. It was understood by civilian Soviet divers that anomalies such as missing bodies and luggage, could have been caused by these military divers working before them. See the latest report (Oct. 1, 2000) from one of the divers who visited KAL 007 at the bottom shortly after the shootdown and who found no bodies and no luggage <ref>http://www.royfc.com/news/oct/0001oct01.html</ref>
[[Image:Ship 3.jpg|Vanya Class minehunter. One of the 48 type vessels of Soviet "search" operations. Released, Navy Dept. Photographer Logan Cleek|right|thumb|300px]]

In the now unclassified “Surface Combatant Forces—7th Fleet Task Force 71 Flight 007 After-Action Report”, dated November 18, 1983, Commander Piotti would summarize the Soviets’ Search and Salvage operations:

<blockquote>
“Within six days of the downing of KAL 007, the Soviets had deployed six ships to the general crash site area. Over the next 8 weeks of observation by U.S. naval units this number grew to a daily average of 19 Soviet naval, naval-associated and commercial (but undoubtedly naval subordinated) ships in the Search and Salvage (SAS) area. The number of Soviet ships in the SAS area over this period ranged from a minimum of six to a maximum of thirty-two and included at least forty-eight different ships comprising forty different ship classes.”
</blockquote>

===Five Theories for the missing bodies===
'''Military diver removal theory:''' Russian deep sea diver Vadim Kondrabaev, one of the civilian divers brought to explore the wreckage of KAL 007 in 1983 gave an interview to the Russian magazine Itogi published on October 1, 2000. He points out that after he and the other civilian divers were brought to Sakhalin on September 10, 1983, they were kept there until "the end of September." "...They literally forgot about us for several days." When they did get to the wreckage, they were surprised to find neither bodies nor luggage. "We worked beneath the water almost a month for 5 hours a day and didn't find one suitcase, not even a handle from them." He suggests that the bodies were removed by the Naval divers who had worked before they,the civilian divers, and that they were brought in "as a smoke screen".

<blockquote>
"It is quite possible that several mini submarines with military divers went down to the Boeing even before us and collected everything, and scattered the remaining parts of the destroyed liner about or left them there where they were needed, and afterwards called us as a smoke screen.[http://www.rescue007.org/kal_007_diver_gives_interview.htm]
</blockquote>

'''The Spy Complement Theory:''' The earliest theory for the absence of bodies was that there were no bodies found because KAL 007 had but a small complement of military personnel and no civilian passengers. This first version of the spy plane theory was by and large discarded by September 9, 1983, when Marshal Nicolay Ogarkov, U.S.S.R. Chief of General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister, conceded that there had been civilian passengers aboard KAL 007 (press conference of September 9, 1983, as quoted by Moscow Radio of the same date).

<blockquote>
"It has been proved irrefutably that the intrusion of the plane of the South Korean Airlines into Soviet airspace was a deliberately, thoroughly planned intelligence operation. It was directed from certain centers in the territory of the United States and Japan. A civilian plane was chosen for its deliberately disregarding, or, counting on the loss of human life."
</blockquote>

'''The Crab Theory:''' It was a claim by the Soviets that the reason for the missing bodies was the large amount of crabs in the debris area. Yet, as Professor William Newman, marine biologist, explains

<blockquote>
"Even if we proceed from the supposition that crustaceans, or sharks, or something else fell upon the flesh, the skeletons should have remained. In many cases, skeletons were found on the sea or ocean floor, which had sat there for many years and even decades. In addition, the crustaceans would not have touched bones.” <ref>http://www.rescue007.org/docs/Russian%20Explanations%20for%20the%20Missing.pdf</ref>
</blockquote>

Neither would they have consumed luggage.

'''The Decompression Theory''':This theory had more force, before the black box tapes analysis showed that the total extent of a missile caused ruptures (even when put all together in one area) to KAL's fuselage was only 1 3/4 sq. feet - too small for anyone to be sucked out.

<blockquote>
Capt. Mikhail Girs: “Something else was inexplicable to us—zipped up clothes. For instance, a coat, slacks, shorts, a sweater with zippers—the items were different, but— zipped up and nothing inside. We came to this conclusion then: Most likely, the passengers had been pulled out of the plane by decompression and they fell in a completely different place from where we found the debris. They had been spread out over a much larger area. The current also did its work.”
</blockquote>

'''The Wind Tunnel Theory:''' Lieutenant General Valeri Kamenski, Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force and formerly Chief of Staff of the Soviet Far East Military District Air Defense Force, the strategic commander of the shootdown, indicating in an interview (Facti I Kommentari [Ukrainian weekly], March 15, 2001) that what happened to the bodies of the crew and passengers of KAL 007 still constitutes a mystery, suggested a third possible explanation.

<blockquote>
“It is still a mystery what happened to the bodies of the crew and passengers on the plane. According to one theory, right after the rocket’s detonation, the nose and tail section of the jumbo fell off and the mid fuselage became a sort of wind tunnel so the people were swept through it and scattered over the surface of the ocean. Yet in this case, some of the bodies were to have been found during the search operations in the area. The question of what actually happened to the people has not been given a distinct answer.”<ref>http://www.rescue007.org/kaminski.htm</ref>
</blockquote>

===The finds at Wakkanai and Hokkaido beaches===
Eight days after the shootdown, human remains and debris from within an aircraft appeared on the north shore of Hokkaido, Japan. Hokkaido began about 30 miles (48 km) below the southern tip of Sakhalin across the Soya Straits. From the southern tip of Sakhalin was 35 miles (56 km) up the west coast of Sakhalin to Moneron ). ICAO concluded that these objects were carried from Russian waters to the Japanese shores of Hokkaido by the southerly current west of Sakhalin Island. All other currents of the relevant east Tsushima straits, including the currents of international waters North of Moneron where the U.S. search operations were conducted, flow to the northward. This southerly current <ref>http://www.pices.int/publications/scientific_reports/Report12/kantakov_f.pdf</ref> between Moneron Island and Sakhalin Island could have been the way for debris to have arrived at Hokkaido, and this was the location for which reports had come in to the Israeli research center indicating that KAL 007 had come down. .

These human remains, including body parts, tissues, and two partial torsos, totaling 13 pieces in number. All were unidentifiable. One partial torso was that of a Caucasian woman - indicated by auburn hair on a partial skull, and one partial body was of an Asian child (with glass imbedded (KAL 007: Cover-up, David Pearson, Summit Books, New York, 1987, Pg. 234) There was no luggage recovered. Of the non human remains that the Japanese recovered were various items including dentures, newspapers, seats, books, 8 "KAL" paper cups, shoes, sandals, and sneakers, a camera case, a "please fasten seat belt" sign, an oxygen mask, a handbag, a bottle of dish washing fluid, several blouses, an identity card belonging to 25 year old passenger Mary Jane Hendrie<ref>http://www.rescue007.org/mary_jane_hendrie.htm</ref> of Sault Ste. [[Image:Mary Jane Hendrie.jpg| Mary Jane Hendrie|right|thumb|200px]]Marie, Canada, and the business card of passenger Kathy Brown-Spier (KAL 007: Cover-up, David Pearson, Summit Books, New York, 1987, Pg. 235). All of the finds at Hokkaido contravened what happens at a catastrophic plane crash at sea - the diffusion of all debris:

Mid-air explosions or plane crashes at sea display a diffused pattern.. In these instances, almost immediately after the crash or midair explosion, there is an indiscriminate mixture of flotsam and debris at the crash site. This admixture is made up of:

1. Bodies, body parts, and body tissues (sometimes in the thousands);

2. Various articles which were with or on the persons of the passengers such as wallets, purses, identity and other cards, electronic portable devises, eyeglasses;

3. Articles from or part of the cabin itself, such as sweaters, jackets, dinner trays, life vests, cups, magazines, signs such as "fasten seat belts", hand luggage, food carts;

4. Articles from the cargo section of the aircraft such as suitcases, packing crates, cartons, sporting goods, musical instruments, industrial and electronic equipment; and

5. Various sized fragments of the aircraft itself.

The greater the altitude of the aircraft at the time of the explosion, or the greater the duration of breakup and disintegration in the air, even at lower altitudes, the more scattered and diffuse the flotsam and debris turned out. It is virtually impossible for there to be a midair explosion and subsequent crash at sea without these features obtaining.

The debris on Hokkaido could not have come from a catastrophic crash of KAL 007. The reason is that, of all the debris washed up on the shore or found in the waters, nothing appeared from any part of the aircraft but one - the passenger cabin area. No luggage or any other item from the jumbo jet's cargo portion such as suitcases, packing crates, cartons, sporting goods, musical instruments, industrial and electronic equipment appeared on the Hokkaido shores. It is possible that this debris, including the 13 unidentifiable human parts and tissues, had come as an intentional Soviet release during these early days of heighted cover-up and deception, and part of the disinformation spoken of in the Top Secret Soviet Memos to Andropov (see below).

===Deception: Conclusion of the 1991 Staff Study of Committee on Foreign Relations===

“Thus, our search efforts were in actuality little more than a charade being played out while the Soviets engaged in their own ruse of pretending themselves to “search” for a wreck they had
probably already immediately located, stripped, probably sunk, and probably destroyed under water.” (pg. 65.)

<blockquote>
“XIII CONCLUSION:

KAL 007 PROBABLY DITCHED SUCCESSFULLY, THERE MAY HAVE BEEN SURVIVORS, THE SOVIETS HAVE BEEN LYING MASSIVELY, AND DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS NEED TO BE MADE TO RETURN THE POSSIBLE SURVIVORS.” Page 77
</blockquote>

===Shoes and the Romanenko involvement===

On Monday, September 26, 1983, a delegation of seven Japanese and American officials arriving aboard the Japanese patrol boat Tsugaru, met a six-man Soviet delegation at the port of Nevelsk on Sakhalin Island. KGB Major General A. I. Romanenko, the Commander of the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands frontier guard, headed the Soviet delegation. Romanenko handed over to the Americans and Japanese, among other things, single and paired footwear. With footwear that the Japanese also retrieved, the total came to 213 men's, women's and children's dress shoes, sandals, and sports shoes. The Soviets said that all that they had retrieved, they had found floating in the water or washed up on the shores of Sakhalin and Moneron islands.

[[Image:John Oldham.jpg|John Oldham|left|thumb|250px]]
[[Image:Shoes.jpg|left|thumb|350PX|Some of the shoes worn by the passengers]]

Family members of KAL 007 passengers would later state that these shoes were actually worn by their loved ones for the flight on that fateful night. Sonia Munder had no difficulty recognizing the sneakers of her children, one of Christian age 14 and one of Lisi age 17 [http://www.rescue007.org/carasco.htm], by the intricate way her children laced them. (Sonia confirmed to me personally that her children were wearing these shoes when they boarded the flight). Another mother says, "I recognized them just like that. You see, there are all kinds of inconspicuous marks which strangers do not notice. This is how I recognized them. My daughter loved to wear them." And yet another mother, Nan Oldham, identified her son [http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_old/PAW99-00/07-1215/1215feat.html#story1], John's sneakers from a photo in Life magazine of 55 of the 213 shoes—apparently, a random array on display those first days at Chitose Air Force Base in Japan. "We saw photos of his shoes in a magazine," says Nan, "We followed up through KAL and a few weeks later, a package arrived. His shoes were inside: size 11 sneakers with cream white paint." John Oldham had taken his seat in row 31 of KAL 007 wearing those cream white paint spattered sneakers. He had just come from painting his suburban Washington, D.C., family home.

From an examination of the shoes in the photo of Life magazine, pairing the sets and counting them with the single shoes, and relating them to the whole, it turns out that the total amount of shoes retrieved account for 198 of the 269 people of KAL 007 - or almost 74% of the total.

The Soviets retrieved the shoes of some portion of this 74% of the flight's passengers, yet claimed not to have found one single body, not one person. This adds great weight to the question "Where are the bodies?" Either the shoes were on the bodies and removed by the Soviets (or the Japanese), or they were removed by the wearers and retrieved by the Soviets (or Japanese). Why were these shoes loose? Were they taken off in preparation for the landing or were they simply removed during the course of the flight? In either case, the one great question remains. Is it really possible for so many shoes to be found and not one single person found to wear them? And if we should negate that the shoes were taken off in preparation for a ditching - that there was no time to do so, or the aircraft was in an exploded and too disintegrated condition to do so, then another question arises - If the non appearance of bodies is explained by their flesh being eaten by crabs, and, contrary to expert opinion, bones eaten by sea creatures, is it really credible, that not one of the 213 items of footwear had a foot, or a toe or a toe bone within it?

Gen. Romanenko would meet a bad end due to his handling of KAL 007 matters (possibly in the removal of the black box). The Republican Staff Study reports that he was probably sent to the Gulag himself. The Israeli Research Centre for Prisons, Psych-Prisons, and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the USSR, resting on informant information, reported, independently and prior to the Staff Study, that Romanenko's name no longer appears in KGB computers. (Once in, a person is noted as reassigned, deceased, retired, etc., but never deleted. It is as if Gen. Romanenko never existed). And finally, Hans Ephraimson-Abt, the head of the American Association for the Families of KAL 007 Victims, reports that while he was in East Germany at the Soviet embassy on Association matters, he was informed by embassy officials that Gen. Romanenko, whom he had come to enquire about (he had not!), had committed suicide. Each in its own time, could have been true.

===The Soviet Deception at Sea===

[[Image:Avraham Shifrin 1990.jpg|Avraham and Eleonora Shifrin, 1990, Jerusalem|right|thumb|200px]]

Reports had come in to Avraham Shifrin, Director of the Research Centre for Prisons, Psych-Prisons, and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the USSR, charged with the debriefing, through the Jewish Agency, of former military men who were immigrating to Israel in the early 1990s that KAL 007 had been tracked by Soviet radar on the Siberian Maritime and had made what Soviet officers believed to be a safe [[Water Ditching]] off Moneron Island. (For a subsequent interview of one of the soldiers from a Soviet radar station that had tracked KAL 007 to what was believed to have been a safe water landing, see [[A Tracking of KAL 007 to Water: An Interview]]). Subsequent reports coming into the Research Centre from Russia itself indicated that the passengers and crew were abducted from the crippled and downed airliner, and the aircraft sunk and exploded under water with its wreckage scattered to simulate a plane having fallen from the skies. The appearance of secondary placement of the wreckage of KAL 007 was confirmed by some of the divers' reports:

<blockquote>
'''Capt. Girs:''' "Aircraft pieces, wing spars, pieces of aircraft skin, wiring, and clothing. But—no people. The impression is that all of this has been dragged here by a trawl rather than falling down from the sky…"
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
'''Diver Viyacheslav Popov''': "As we learned then, before us the trawlers had done some ‘work’ in the designated quadrant. It is hard to understand what sense the military saw in the trawling operation. First drag everything haphazardly around the bottom by the trawls, and then send in the submersibles?...It is clear that things should have been done in the reverse order.”<ref>[http://www.rescue007.org/docs/TheGreatRussianRuse.pdf]- pgs 10,11.</ref>
</blockquote>

These were some of the reports conveyed to Senator Jessie Helms of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and which prompted him, according to Helms' chief of Staff Admiral Bud Nance, to write to Boris Yeltsin concerning KAL 007.<ref>http://www.rescue007.org/nance_letter.htm</ref>

====The Top Secret Soviet Memos====
(For the memos in their entirety see [http://www.rescue007.org/TopSecretMemos.htm])

In 1992, Russian president Boris Yeltsin disclosed five top-secret memos dating from late 1983, within weeks of the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007. These memos were published in the Soviet news magazine, Izvestia #228, October 16, 1992, shortly after being made public.
The Soviet's own recording (from KGB head V. Chebrikov and Defence Minister D. Ustinov to Premier of Soviet Union Y. Andropov) of their deception of the U.S. fleet and the world, confirming that while they were pretending to search and while they were harassing the U.S. fleet [http://www.rescue007.org/photo_essay.htm], they already knew where KAL 007 was, had already boarded her, and had secured for themselves the sought after "Black Box":

[[Image:Andropov.jpg|Y. Andropoov|right|thumb|150px]]
[[Image:Chebrikov.jpg|V. Chebrikov|right|thumb|150px]]
[[Image:Ustinov.jpg| D. Ustinov|right|thumb|150px]]

<blockquote>
"Simulated search efforts in the Sea of Japan are being performed by our vessels at present in order to dis-inform the US and Japan. These activities will be discontinued in accordance with a specific plan...
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
"...Therefore, if the flight recorders shall be transferred to the western countries their objective data can equally be used by the USSR and the western countries in proving the opposite view points on the nature of the flight of the South Korean airplane. In such circumstances a new phase in anti-Soviet hysteria cannot be excluded.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
"In connection with all mentioned above it seems highly preferable not to transfer the flight recorders to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) or any third party willing to decipher their contents. The fact that the recorders are in possession of the USSR shall be kept secret...
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
"As far as we are aware neither the US nor Japan has any information on the flight recorders. We have made necessary efforts in order to prevent any disclosure of the information in future.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
"Looking to your approval.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
"D.Ustinov, V.Chebrikov
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
"____ December 1983"
</blockquote>

(''From Top Secret Memos disclosed in 1992 by Boris Yeltsin and published in Izvestia, #228, Oct. 16, 1992.'', Cited in Christopher Andrew, "KGB Foreign Intelligence from Brezhnev to the Coup," Intelligence and National Security, vol. 8, no. 3 (July 1993), p. 60." and by Benjamin B. Fischer,Center for the Study of Intelligence (CIA), ''A Cold War Conundrum'', 1997)

===The Russians caught in their lie===
The Top Secret Memos to Andropov (Dec. 1983) clearly acknowledge that by Oct. 20, 1983, the Black Box and KAL 007 were in Soviet possession '''[from the Soviet Civilian Divers reports they were ''already down on Sept. 15!''].'''

<blockquote>
"On 20 October this year at the point with coordinate...In the third decade of October this year the equipment in question (the recorder of in-flight parameters and the recorder of voice communications by the flight crew with ground air traffic surveillance stations and between themselves) was brought aboard a search vessel and forwarded to Moscow by air for decoding and translation at the Air Force Scientific Research Institute."
</blockquote>

''Yet the Soviets continued the pretense of search through the first part of November!
'' '''

A recent (Sept. 1, 2003) acknowledgement of the Soviet deception of the U.S. and allied search and rescue mission for KAL 007 comes from the the Russian Federation government itself - from the Deputy Director of State Archives of Recent History. He acknowledges that Soviet forces participated in the futile search for KAL 007 while all along knowing where it was. See [http://www.rescue007.org/anniversary_commentary.htm]

===The Soviet Black Box Deception I: The Tapes===
[[Image:BlackBox19850-11.jpg|The "Black Box":Comprised of the Digital Flight Data Recorder, recording movement and functioning of aircraft, and Cockpit Voice Recorder, recording from 3 microphones, cockpit conversation and all sounds|right|thumb|200px]]
The ICAO Report released on Dec. 2, 1983 contained this statement by the Soviet Government,
"No remains of the victims, the Instruments or their components or the flight recorders have so far been discovered" (Appendix F, ICAO 83). This was a lie as Boris Yeltsin's release of the earlier Nov. 1983 Memo from KGB head V. Chebrikov and Defense Minister D. Ustinov to Yuri Andropov, would show,

<blockquote>
"In the third decade of October this year the equipment in question (the recorder of in-flight parameters and the recorder of voice communications by the flight crew with ground air traffic surveillance stations and between themselves) was brought aboard a search vessel and forwarded to Moscow by air for decoding and translation at the Air Force Scientific Research Institute."'' (Izvestia #228, October 16, 1992)
</blockquote>

Thus, the Soviets not only had recovered the black box at least a month and a half prior to the time that they had reported to ICAO that there were no recovered "remains of the victims, the instruments or their components or the flight recorders", but their search up through the beginning of November for KAL 007 and the Black Box was seen to be a hoax.
The [[Black box]] tapes eventually (after 9 years of denial) handed over to the ICAO investigators by the Russian Federation were of only the first minute and 44 seconds of KAL 007's post missile detonation 12 minute plus flight. The Russian Federation supplied military communications transcripts provide the rest of the documented flight showing that KAL 007 survived the missile attack and was able to maintain control, flying for nearly 5 minutes at level flight after pulling up from its dive, was able to maneuver, to turn north, to spiral down over the only available land site in the whole Tatar straits - Moneron Island. The mystery of how the stricken aircraft which should have hit the water in 2 1/2 minutes instead of over 12 minutes was solved. It had leveled out and flown for almost 5 minutes before beginning its spiral descent. That the return of only part of the Black Box tapes which exclude the actual capabilities of KAL 007 to maintain controlled flight was intentional and deceptive is suggested by the following:

'''1.''' '''Both components of the black box - the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) - were operating after the missile detonation.'''

'''2.''' '''There is no evidence of impairment of the electrical system''' (High Frequency broadcast by KAL 007 to Japanese ground control after detonation of missile and all four engines reported by co-pilot to pilot to be operating normally.)

'''3.''' '''Both recorders "stopped" minutes prior to any conjectured aerial mishap that might have damaged the Black Box''' (substantiated by both radar tracking and military real-time communications). ICAO notes that the cessation of recordings occurring 1 minute and 44 seconds after missile detonation is consonant with a high speed impact while it also maintains that there was no impact at that time. There is no reconciliation of data supplied or suggestion as to what else might have caused the cessation of recording. (ICAO Report, 1993, pg. 30, paragraph 1.14.3.5.4)

'''4.''' '''Both recorders, with electric lines on opposite sites of the fuselage and with separate points of attachments to their respective instruments, "stopped working" at precisely the same second''' - an incredible unlikelihood. ICAO '93 analysis notes no known reason for this to have happened.

===="Last Words" contradiction====
Cockpit Voice Recorder tapes end, most often,with the successful flight arriving at the ramp of the airport of destination, or end recording the flight deck human agony and horror at impending catastrophe.
The last words heard on the CVR tape are - '''18:27:20: "Now... We have to set this. 18:27:23: speed 18:27:26: Stand by, stand by, stand by, stand by, set!"'''

These words are in stark contrast to the common types of last words uttered as an aircraft is about to crash, bringing to the fore the question, "Why did the Soviets not hand over the rest of the tapes recording the rest of KAL 007's flight?":

'''US Air Flight 427
September 8, 1994'''—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Flight 427, for reasons still unknown, has turned over onto its back and in another 16 seconds will hit the ground.
'''Copilot:''''' Oh, sh-t.'' '''Captain:''' ''Hang on. What the h-ll is this?'' '''Cabin:'''
[Sound of stick shaker vibrations indicating imminent stall; sound of altitude alert.] '''Captain:''' ''What the…'' '''Copilot:''' ''Oh…'' '''Captain''':'' Oh God, Oh God..'''''Approach:''' ''USAir''.''' Captain''':'' Four twenty-seven, emergency!'' '''Co-pilot''': ''[Screams.]''''' Captain:''' ''Pull.'' '''Copilot:''''' Oh…'''''Captain''': ''Pull… pull…'' '''Copilot''': ''God…'' '''Captain''':[Screams.]'' '''Copilot''': ''No…''

End of tape.

'''Yukla 27
September 22, 1995'''—Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska
Immediately upon takeoff, Yukla 27, an Air Force Boeing 707 configured as a radar E-3A, took several Canadian geese in engines one and two, disintegrating fan blades. All 24 aboard were lost in the ensuing crash.

'''Cabin''': ''Yukla Two Seven heavy’s [indicating large or wide-bodied plane] coming back around for an emergency return. Lower the nose. Lower the nose.''

'''Tower''': Two Seven heavy, roger.

'''Captain:''''' Goin’ down.''

'''Copilot''': ''Oh my God.''

'''Captain''': ''Oh sh-t.''

'''Copilot:''' ''Okay, give it all you got, give it all you got. Two Seven heavy, emergency…''

'''Tower''':'' Roll the crash [equipment] roll the crash—''

'''Copilot:''' [Over public address system] ''Crash [landing]!''

'''Captain''': ''We’re going in. We’re going down.''

End of Tape.

'''Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529
August 21, 1995'''—Carrolton, Georgia
21 minutes into its flight, Flight 529’s left engine has fallen apart or exploded. Parts of the propeller blades are wedged against the wing and the front part of the cowling is destroyed. The captain and seven passengers will die. The copilot will survive with burns over 80% of his body.

'''Captain'''. [To copilot]'' Help me. Help me hold it. Help me hold it. Help me hold it.''

'''Cabin''': [Vibrating sound of the stick shaker starts warning of stall.]

'''Copilot''': ''Amy, I love you.''

'''Cabin''': [Sound of ''grunting''; sound of impact.]

End of tape.

(The Black Box, Malcom MacPherson (ed.) Quill William Morrow, New York: 1998)

These authentic last words coming from the flight decks of aircraft about to crash are in stark contrast to the "last words" coming from the Soviet recovered and retained and Russian Federation supplied tapes, "Now... We have to set this. Speed, stand by, stand by, stand by, stand by, set!"

===The Soviet Black Box Deception II: The Black Box itself===
The Soviets handed over only one minute and 44 seconds of the Black Box tapes. Both the Cockpit Voice Recorder and Digital Flight Data Recorder tapes which should have continued functioning until the end of the flight, whether by termination of the flight or by a crash, had "ceased simultaneously" (ICAO '93, 1.14.3.10.13). ICAO analysis of the Russian Federation supplied Black Box itself concluded that the damage to it "might have resulted from a high speed water impact" (1.14.3.4.2). But the conjectured "high speed water impact" would have been at or after the documented 12 minutes post attack flight, and not at one minute and 44 seconds after missile detonation. The possible "high speed water impact" can not explain, then, the fact that the tapes ceased at 1 minute and 44 seconds. The rest of the tapes would have documented what the Soviet high command saw on their screens, as shown by the Soviet military communications handed to ICAO by the Russian Federation - KAL 007 regaining control, maintaining level flight at 16, 242 ft, turning, and descending in a spiral around Moneron Island. Why had the rest of the tapes not been returned by the Soviets and where are they now?

There are credible but as yet unconfirmed reports of survivors in the former Soviet Union, including Congressman Larry McDonald.<ref>http://www.rescue007.org/faq.htm#10</ref><ref>http://www.rescue007.org/survivors_of_kal_007.htm</ref> Jewish immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union reported seeing survivors from the flight. According to reports, most of the adult passengers ended up in labor camps, while the children were adopted out and absorbed into Soviet society. Congressman McDonald was interrogated in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow for a time before he too was sent to forced labor. [[Image:McDonald- Computer Aged.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Computer aged picture of McDonald till 1995 shown to wardens of Temir Tau, Kazakhstan prison where they identified McDonald as having been a former "probable prisoner". Note the scar running from the left nostril to corner of mouth. For subsequent tracking of McDonald, see [http://www.rescue007.org/faq.htm#10]]]

==Senator Jesse Helms and the POW and KAL 007 Connection==
On December 5, 1991, Senator Helms wrote to Boris Yeltsin concerning U.S. servicemen who were POWs or MIAs,

<blockquote>
"The status of thousands and thousands of American servicemen who are held by Soviet and other Communist forces, and who were never repatriated after every major war this century, is of grave concern to the American people."</blockquote>

Yeltsin would ultimately respond with a statement made on June 15, 1992, while being interviewed aboard his presidential jet on his way to the United States:

<blockquote>
"Our archives have shown that it is true — some of them were transferred to the territory of the U.S.S.R. and were kept in labor camps... We can only surmise that some of them may still be alive."
</blockquote>

On December 10, just five days after Senator Helms had written Yeltsin concerning American servicemen, he again wrote to Yeltsin, this time concerning KAL 007:

<blockquote>
"One of the greatest tragedies of the Cold War was the shoot-down of the Korean Airlines flight KAL-007 by the Armed Forces of what was then the Soviet Union on September 1, 1983. . . The KAL-007 tragedy was one of the most tense incidences of the entire Cold War. However, now that relations between our two nations have improved substantially, I believe that it is time to resolve the mysteries surrounding this event. Clearing the air on this issue could help further to improve relations."</blockquote>

Helms appended to this letter the following interrogatories:

<blockquote>
From Soviet reports of the incident, please provide:
# A list of the names of any living passengers and crew members from the airplane;
# A list of missing passengers and crew;
# A list of dead passengers and crew;
# A list and explanation of what happened to the bodies of any dead passengers and crew;
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Please provide detailed information on the fate of U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald.
# How many KAL-007 family members and crew are being held in Soviet camps?
# Please provide a detailed list of the camps containing live passengers and crew, together with a map showing their location
</blockquote>

Senator Helms' letter to Yeltsin was prompted, according to the Chief of Staff under Helms for the Minority Staff of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Rear Admiral Bud Nance, by the information from Israel, apparently verified by the CIA, concerning KAL 007 [http://www.rescue007.org/nance_letter.htm]

This short period in the presidency of Boris Yeltsin evidenced a relative openness toward the United States, a window of opportunity which would shut tight with the ascendancy of Vladimir Putin. Added to KAL 007 and the American POW matters, Yeltsin had exhibited openness in his acknowledgment that the plague that had struck Sverdlovsk on April 9, 1979 causing death to humans and livestock had not been due, as the Soviets had long claimed, to a rampant cow disease, but to a mishap at a military biological facility which released deadly anthrax into the atmosphere.

===The Russian Black Box Acknowledgement===
The Yeltsin "thaw" and the window of opportunity for the U.S. saw the following developments:

'''On March 24, 1992''', Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov admitted on Russian television that he had ordered an all-out effort to retrieve the [[flight recorder|black boxes]] in order to "prevent the United States from finding them and to save the Soviet Union from a flurry of international accusations for destroying a civilian airliner"

'''June 17, 1992''', Yeltsin revealed the existence of a KGB memo reporting the existence of documents related to KAL 007. Speaking in Washington, Yeltsin said,

<blockquote>
"It was a memorandum from (the) KGB to the Central Committee of the Communist Party where it says that such a tragedy has taken place, and so on and so forth, and that there are documents which would clarify the entire picture. And the next line then says these documents are so well concealed that it is doubtful that our children will be able to find them, those who come after us will be able to find them."('''UPI, Washington, June 17, 1992)
</blockquote>

'''On October 14, 1992 ''' a delegation from the American Association For Families of KAL 007 Victims visited Moscow at the invitation of President Boris Yeltsin. During a State ceremony at St. Catherine's Hall in the Kremlin. The KAL 007 Family Delegation was handed a portfolio containing partial transcripts from the KAL007 Cockpit Voice Recorder .

'''November, 1992''', President Boris Yeltsin handed the two Black Box containers to Korean President TohTae-Woo -but not the tapes themselves at the end of the plenary session of the Korean National Assembly with this statement, "We apologize for the tragedy and are trying to settle some unsolved issues."

'''January 8, 1993'''. The tapes themselves would be handed to ICAO. They would be deciphered and transcribed by the "Bureau d'Enquete et d'Analyses" (BEA) in Paris in the presence of representatives from Japan, The Russian Federation, South Korea,and the United States. And so the long years of Soviet denial had come to an end with the handing over of the tapes (but not all!) of KAL 007's Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder (See - [http://www.rescue007.org/docs/Is%20This%20the%20Final%20Word.pdf])

===Senator Jesse Helms, KAL 015, and the Grenfell children===
[[Image:Senator Jesse helms.jpg|Jesse Helms|right|thumb|450px]]
[[Image:Grenfell3.jpg|Stacy Marie|left|thumb|150px]][[Image:Grenfell2.jpg|Noelle Anne|left|thumb|100px]]

Senator Helms, along with Senator Steven Symms of Idaho and Congressman Carroll Hubbard Jr. of Kentucky, had traveled on KAL 015 fifteen minutes behind KAL 007, and had stopped at Anchorage airport, as did Larry McDonald on KAL 007, and had gotten off KAL 015. McDonald did not get off. Reports indicate that Helms had contemplated changing to KAL 007 to be with him but decided against it. That near miss must have stayed with him as the outcome of the flight became apparent as KAL 015 arrived at Seoul Airport and KAL 007 did not. As he attended the 30th Year celebration of the U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty - and Larry Mcdonald did not. As the reports from Israel of survivors would come to his office 8 years later. As he would write to Yeltsin. As Yeltsin would comply with all the requests that Helms had made of him - excepting the fate of the passengers and crew, and especially, the sought after information about Larry McDonald.

One thing Helms could not forget and would speak of often, and mention in his letter to Boris Yeltsin, was a meeting at Anchorage airport while both KAL 007 and KAL 015 were taking on fuel for the next leg of the trip, a meeting that he had with two child passengers, Noel Anne Grenfell, aged 5, and her sister Stacy Marie, aged 3.<ref>http://www.rescue007.org/grenfells.htm</ref>

<blockquote>
"I’ll never forget that night when that plane was just beside ours at Anchorage airport with two little girls and their parents. I taught them, among other things, to say I love you in deaf language, and the last thing they did when they turned the corner was stick up their little hands and tell me they loved me. I’ll never forget that, and I know you won’t."
</blockquote>

==Who ordered the shoot-down==
[[Image:Tretyak.jpg|General Ivan Moseivich Tretyak
Used with permission, www.peoples.ru “Weapons were used, weapons authorized at the highest level. Ivan Moiseevich authorized it. Hello, hello.”,“Say again.”,“I cannot hear you clearly now.”,“He gave the order. Hello, hello, hello.”,“Yes, yes.”,“Ivan Moseivich gave the order, Tretyak.”,“Roger, roger.”,“Weapons were used at his order.”|right|thumb|150px]]

Who ordered the shootdown on the Soviet military side is fairly well known and on the political side, the lines leading up to the General Secretary of the Communist Party and head of the Soviet Union Yuri Andropov, can confidently be conjectured by "working up" the Soviet hierarchical system of command.

'''General Anatoli Kornukov''', the Commander of Sokol Air Base on Sakhalin was the "tactical" commander of the shootdown and subordinate to the "strategic" commander of the shootdown - General [[Valeri Kamensky]] (General Kornukov would later become head of the Russian Air Force).

'''General Kamensky''' was the Commander of the Soviet Far East Air Defence forces and would have informed both

'''General Ivan Moseivich Tretyak''' <ref>http://www.rescue007.org/rescue.htm</ref> his direct superior and Commander of the Soviet Far East Military District as his direct commander, and informed the Commander-in Chief of Air Defense Forces at the National Command Center in Kalinin. This was '''Gen. Alexandr Koldunov'''. (Maj. Victor Belenko, who served in one of the units that brought 007 down, but who had defected to Japan in his MiG 25 in 1976, says that at the first intrusion of KAL 007 over Kamchatka, Gen. Kamensky would already have informed his superior at the National Command Center at Kalinin and the intruder would have been tracked on the screen there until it had left Soviet territory).

As this was an emergency, the Commander in Chief of Soviet Air Forces (VVS), '''Chief Marshal of Aviation Pavel Kutakhov''' would have been informed.

As the test of the illegal (Salt ll) SS-25 had been planned for that night with the missile coming down on the Klyuchi target range of Kamchatka<ref>http://www.rescue007.org/how_kal_007_was_lost.htm</ref> - where KAL 007 was to traverse in its first intrusion of Soviet territory- the head of the First Directorate of Strategic Concealment (Maskirovka), '''First Deputy Chief of Staff Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev''' would have been present for any decision.

Further, '''Chief of the Soviet General Staff and First Deputy Minister of Defense Nikolai Ogarkov''' would have been in on any decision and would have informed his immediate superior and link with the Political echelon, '''Minister of Defense Dmitri Ustinov'''.

It is then that '''Yuri Andropov''' would have been in position for decision for shootdown.

The telecommunications for this linkage up the Military and then Political chain of command would have been effected well within the hours starting at the first intrusion into Soviet controlled airspace - 1551 GMT (Missile detonation was at 18:26:02 GMT).

==Conclusions and Aftermath==
*The "black boxes" that were the data flight recorder and the cockpit voice recorder were hidden away for nearly ten years after their recovery by the Soviets, during which time they employed their own spin as to the nature of the flight. So damning was the black box evidence against them that they had hoped it would never see the light of day. Even Mikhail Gorbachev during his period of "glasnost" ("openness") kept assuring investigators that the black boxes did not exist.

*On December 10, 1992 Senator Jesse Helms wrote to Russian president [[Boris Yeltsin]].

"One of the greatest tragedies of the Cold War," he wrote, "was the shoot-down of the Korean Airlines Flight 007 by the Armed Forces of what was then the Soviet Union on September 1, 1983. . . The KAL-007 tragedy was one of the most tense incidences of the entire Cold War. However, now that relations between our two nations have improved substantially, I believe that it is time to resolve the mysteries surrounding this event. Clearing the air on this issue could help further to improve relations.<ref>http://www.rescue007.org/helms_letter.htm</ref>" At about the same time a military memo boasting of the secret would make its way into Yeltsin's hands, leading to the discovery of the black boxes as well as the top secret reports about them by the Soviet Defense Ministry. Yeltsin would ultimately respond on January 8, 1993 by handing over to the International Civil Aviation Organization what the Russians had for so many years denied possessing: the tapes of the KAL 007's "Black Box" (its Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder).<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20010919141246/www.insightmag.com/archive/200104171.shtml</ref><ref>http://www.jamesoberg.com/russian/kal007.html</ref>

*Previous to the shootdown, the Reagan Administration was far from assured that the Administration supported NATO deployment of Cruise and Pershing II missiles in West Germany, just 6–10 minutes flight to Moscow, would go through. After the shootdown, deployment was assured and remained in effect until the accords with Mikhail Gorbachev allowed for their withdrawal. The shootdown can thus be seen as one of the main incidences leading to the confrontational Reagan policy in the "Second Cold War" which played its part in the backdown and demise of the Soviet Union.

*As a result of the perceived cause of KAL 007's flight deviation ([[Inertial Navigation System]]), President Reagan authorized the hitherto strictly military use of the [[Global Positioning System]] (GPS) for civilian use. The GPS is now used extensively for civilian passenger flights and for vehicular land travel.

* '''The immortal words of former UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick's deputy Charles Lichenstein''': Shortly after the Soviet Union shot down KAL 007, legislatures in New York and New Jersey denied Soviet aircraft landing rights. Some at the UN raised the question of whether that body should remove from the United States. And Lichenstein, fed up and in no mood for "diplomacy," said, "We will put no impediment in your way. The members of the US mission to the United Nations will be down at the dockside waving you a fond farewell as you sail off into the sunset."

*The attempted landing of KAL 007 with the reported survival rate of zero percent presents the following anamoly: it would be the only documented incident, in all of aviation history, of an intentional water landing of a passenger plane, under any emergency situation, where there have been no survivors. See [[Water Ditching]], [[Miracle on the Hudson and KAL 007]], and [[Passenger Plane Crashes at Sea]]

Korean Airlines Flight 007 was a victim of the Cold War, a flight that had possibly simply gone off course in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Careless discrepancies by the plane's pilot combined with Soviet paranoia helped to end, reportedly, the lives of 269 passengers and crew.

==Passenger and Crew Breakdown ==
Republic of Korea 105, United States 62, Japan 28, Taiwan 23 Philippines 16, Hong Kong 12, Canada 8, Thailand 5, Australia 2, United Kingdom 2, Dominican Republic 1, India 1, Islamic Republic of Iran 1, Malaysia 1, Sweden 1, Vietnam 1 (ICAO '93, 1.3, Pg. 6).
[[Image:Sammy ariadej.jpg|Sammy Ariadej. 8 months old at the time of boarding KAL 007 with his mother Diane to meet the family of his father Lek in Thailand. See [http://www.rescue007.org/ariyadej.htm] for full write-up|right|thumb|130px]][[Image:Alfredo Cruz and Exie.jpg|Passenger Alfredo Cruz with daughter Exie Cruz Schlossberg. Alfredo was on his way to the Philippines to attend the funeral of his mother. See [http://www.rescue007.org/alfredo_cruz.htm] for full write-up|left|thumb|160px]]

[[Image:Unidentified.jpg|unidentified passenger|150px]][[Image:Unknown1.jpg|unidentified passenger|200px]]

See [http://www.rescue007.org/passengers.htm] for breakdown of identities, with photos and stories by relatives and friends, for passengers, flight crew, flight attendants, security (air marshals), and deadheaders (repositioning KAL employees). See [http://www.rescue007.org/passenger_photos.htm] for photos of passengers who had boarded the plane but who have not been linked to passenger list and remain unidentified.

==Further reading==
*Dallin, Alexander. ''Black Box: KAL 007 and the Superpowers'', University of California Press, Berkeley, CA (1985)
*Hersh, Seymour M. ''The Target is Destroyed'', Vintage, New York (1987)
*[http://www.rescue007.org/book.htm Schlossberg, Bert. Rescue 007: The Untold Story of KAL 007 and its Survivors, Xlibris Corporation, Philadelphia, PA (2001)]
*[http://foia.fbi.gov/flight/flight1.pdf FBI files on the incident obtained via the Fredom of Information Act]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20010919141246/www.insightmag.com/archive/200104171.shtml Timothy W. Maier's article "KAL 007 Mystery", from ''Insight Magazine'']
*[http://www.geocities.com/struwwellpeter/cvr.htm Transcript of the cockpit voice recorder]
*[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,926169,00.html "Atrocity in the Skies", ''Time'' Magazine, September 12, 1983]
*[http://www.rescue007.org/docs/CIAReport.pdf "CIA" report, suggesting the plane did not crash and the survivors were interned]
*[http://amzn.to/2cgv764 The Cold War, KAL-007 & Communism: Intelligence Secrets Revealed]
*Solovev, Vladimir, and Klepikove, Elena. ''Behind the High Kremlin Walls'', Dodd Mead, New York (1986). ISBN 0396087108

==See also==
*[[The KAL 007 related Soviet/ U.S naval confrontation]]
*[[KAL 007: Soviet stalk, shoot down, and rescue mission orders transcripts]]
*[[KAL 007: the Russian Federation support for a water landing]]
*[[Soviet diver to KAL 007 says no bodies, no luggage]]
*[[Soviet deception in the search for KAL 007: a seaman's testimony]]
*[[The Soviet's Deception of the Location of KAL 007's Water Landing]]
*[[Essay: The KAL 007 Survivor Anecdotes]]
*[[U.S. Intelligence on KAL 007's Intrusion into Soviet Territory and the Shoot down]]
*[[KAL 007: Soviet stalk, shoot down, and rescue mission orders transcripts]], Soviet real-time military communications and U.S./Japanese electronic intercepts
*[[KAL 007: Timeline of Events, Russian Regime changes, and Investigations]]
*[[KAL 007: Its Deviated Flight Until Attack]]
*[[Inertial Navigation System]]
*[[KAL 007: Timeline of Interception and Shootdown]]
*[[Attack on KAL 007: From Inside]]
*[[KAL 007/ Russian Ram attempt]] first person narrative of what it was like
*[[KAL 007: The Russian Explanations for the Missing Bodies]]
*[[KAL 007 and the Soviet Top Secret Memos]]
*[[KAL 007 on the Water: a sighting]]
*[[KAL 007:Floating Shoes]]
*[[Water Ditching]]
*[[Passenger Plane Crashes at Sea]]
*[[Essay: KAL 007 Survivors and Gulags of Russia]]
*[[Soviet Officers of KAL 007 Shootdown]]
*[[Ronald Reagan's speech on KAL 007]]
*[[The Stavitski Account]]
*[[KAL 007: Survivor reports and whereabouts]]
*[[Jesse Helms]]
*[[Jesse Helms: A Tribute]]
*[[History Channel Documentary on KAL 007: a critical review]] A study in Media misrepresentation
*[[Miracle on the Hudson and KAL 007]]
*[[A Tracking of KAL 007 to Water: An Interview]] The first former Soviet military debriefing report sent from Israel to Senator [[Jesse Helms]]
*[[Wikipedia prejudice and KAL 007]]
*[[Anatoly Kornukov]]
*''[[The Zero Option]]'' A 2009 novel based partly on the findings of the International Committee for the Rescue of KAL 007 Survivors [http://www.rescue007.org/] - the tracking and rescue of Congressman Larry McDonald
*[[Moneron Island]]
*[[Sakhalin]]
*[[The Soviet/ U.S naval confrontation]]
*[[KAL 007: A short summary of evidences]]
*[[Avraham Shifrin: KAL 007 Researcher/ An Essay]]
*[[Korean Air]]

==References==
<references/>
==External links==
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/lawrence-patton-mcdonald-b_15.html A Forgotten Man: Congressman Larry McDonald]
*[http://www.jamesoberg.com/russian/kal007.html "KAL 007: The Real Story", article by James Oberg, ''American Spectator'' Magazine, October 1993]
*[http://www.rescue007.org/ Page devoted to the flight and to the possibility that there may have been imprisoned survivors]
*[http://users.rcn.com/lana.interport/link/colonel.html Interview with Gennadi Osipovich, the pilot who shot down the plane (December 9, 1996)]
*[http://ase.arc.nasa.gov/people/asaf/aviation_safety/pdf/Crash%20of%20Korean%20Air%20Lines%20Flight%20007.pdf NASA report on autopilot error]
*[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE2DA1E30F935A15752C0A962958260 Obituary of Soviet Marshal Ogarkov]
*[http://www.rescue007.org/ The website of the International Committee for the Rescue of KAL 007 Survivors]
*[http://www.airliners.net/articles/read.main?id=77 Article at Airliners.net]
*[http://www.airliners.net/articles/ All eight of the Airliners.net articles about KAL 007 are accessed from this page]
*[http://www.rescue007.org/documentary_review.htm Critique of History Channel documentary on KAL 007]
*[http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2001/11/01.html AIM column on KAL 007 - "Let's Ask Putin"]
*[http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/2001/21.html AIM Column on KAL 007 - "Put it to Putin" Accuracy in Media article prior to AIM petition to Russian Embassy in Washington]
*[http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2001/11/16.html AIM column on KAL 007 - "Questions for President Putin"]
*[http://www.aim.org/aim-report/hold-russia-accountable-for-kal-007-shootdown/ New AIM report on KAL 007 "Hold Russia Accountable For KAL 007 Shootdown"]
*[http://www.thenewamerican.com/history/world/270-kal-flight-007-remembered "KAL Flight 007 Remembered" New American Magazine]
*[http://www.airliners.net/aviation-articles/read.main?id=132 The 25th Anniversary of KAL 007, Airliners.com]
*[http://sterett.net/public/kal_007_search_ops.htm USS Sterett: First hand account of US-Soviet naval oonfrontation with real-time photos]
*[http://www.jacksjoint.com/munro_kal-007.htm USCGC Munro and the Korean Airliner (KAL 007)]
*[http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/history/world/1799 "Unresolved Questions Surround KAL 007" New American Magazine]
*[http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/history/american/4475-larry-mcdonald-an-american-hero-remembered "Larry McDonald - An American Hero Remembered", New American Magazine]
===Video Links===

*[http://www.youtube.com/user/rescueKAL007#p/a/FD3DE4F0642C350C/0/1c8v-kgLvhM KAL 007 intro/Larry McDonald on Crossfire in 1983]
*[http://www.youtube.com/user/rescueKAL007 YOUTUBE presentation on KAL 007 and mystery]
*[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7214790644390578276&q=kal+007&total=9&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4 President Reagan's address to the country, September 5, 1983]
*[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-632341558732857585&q=kal+007&total=9&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2 CNN archives on KAL 007]
*[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4136846576945143477&q=kal+007&total=9&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 Discovery Channel program "Unsolved History: Flight KAL 007"]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YglShO6ChW0&feature=related KAL 007 Search and Recovery Operations USS Sterett CG 31 1983]

[[Category:KAL007]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

User talk:BertSchlossberg

2017-03-29T17:08:50Z

BertSchlossberg:

Sorry to revert your link addition to [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]]; there was already a link to that particular page just above it. [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 12:46, 18 December 2007 (EST)

Getting the hang of it. I thought it was because of the different colored print.[[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 18:57, 18 December 2007 (EST)Bert Schlossberg[[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 18:57, 18 December 2007 (EST)

You're not THE Bert Schlossberg, are you? [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 07:19, 19 December 2007 (EST)
{{welcome|sig=[[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 08:32, 19 December 2007 (EST)}}

== Signature ==

You seem to be having a bit of a problem with your signature. All you need to do is type four tildes ({{tt|<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>}}) or click the signature button on the editing toolbar. [[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 09:00, 19 December 2007 (EST)

Suddenly, finally, I got it! I'll try it now. Thanks [[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 20:48, 24 December 2007 (EST)Eureka...it works![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 20:48, 24 December 2007 (EST)

== Book ==

Well, Bert, I didn't read your book yet, but the theory on survivors of KAL 007 is very compelling. If possible, there's room to improve that article, and I would love you to do it. [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 10:35, 19 December 2007 (EST)

In a short while, I'll try. Thanks, Karajou! {{unsigned|BertSchlossberg}}

:<s>I would not love this. If you have a book, please publish it first.</s> I deleted the conspiracy section. If you wish, you can copy it to your userspace, e.g., [[User:BertSchlossberg/KAL 007 conspiracy]]. Let me know if you need help with this. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 20:01, 20 December 2007 (EST)
:: You'd not love what? Him improving the article? Huh? And what makes you think that if he "has a book", he hasn't published it? By the looks of [http://www.rescue007.org/book.htm this], he already has. [[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 20:41, 20 December 2007 (EST)

:Oop! Sorry, Bert. I guess I should be less hasty. Welcome to Conservapedia, and please accept [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Korean_Airlines_Flight_007&diff=next&oldid=355829 this correction] with my compliments. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 20:45, 20 December 2007 (EST)
:: Heh, I liked your edit comment[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Korean_Airlines_Flight_007&curid=50587&diff=355875&oldid=355829]. :-) [[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 21:43, 20 December 2007 (EST)

Minor adjustment [http://www.conservapedia.com/Korean_Airlines_Flight_007#The_Case_for_Passenger_Survival_and_Abduction] of your edit to KAL 007, and only to make it fit in with the rest of the article. [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 08:04, 21 December 2007 (EST)

And so you did. Thanks, Karajou!

Ed, Don't give a thought to it. You're a man of passion! Thanks for the welcome to Conservapedia.[[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 09:42, 21 December 2007 (EST)Bert Schlossberg[[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 09:42, 21 December 2007 (EST)

==[[Holocaust]]==
Fixed the entry in question. This is also an article that could use some improvement and expansion; to me it is too brief. Any ideas would be helpful. [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 05:30, 21 December 2007 (EST)

== KAL ==

It's ok if you want to link to your article, but please keep it relevant to the page and relevant on the page. [[User:HelpJazz|Help]][[User talk:HelpJazz|Jazz]] 17:53, 10 January 2008 (EST)

:I noticed your link in [[Ronald Reagan]]. That's more along the lines of what's appropriate. I didn't mean to seem heavy-handed; I wouldn't have removed them but I figured you knew best where they should go. [[User:HelpJazz|Help]][[User talk:HelpJazz|Jazz]] 13:07, 12 January 2008 (EST)

You weren't heavy-handed. You were directive and it helped me to get things together. Thanks![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 16:48, 12 January 2008 (EST)

== Interesting edits ==

Interesting edits. Thanks. By the way, I noticed someone reverted one of your edits and just let me know if you think any reversion was unjustified: [[User talk:Aschlafly]].

Oh, one other thing: you'd be a terrific addition to the list of contestants for our upcoming contest. These are very fun and this will be our fourth. Just add your name to the list here: [[Conservapedia:Contest4]]. Godspeed.--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 08:45, 12 January 2008 (EST)

Ashlafly, I never thanked you for the commendation and suggestion that I add my name onto the contest. I want to do that now. Maybe, I will for the next contest[[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 15:57, 3 March 2008 (EST)

==Minor change by PhoenixWright==

Hi, Bert. You can click on this [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Korean_Airlines_Flight_007&diff=399371&oldid=399369 "diff link"] to see the minor change made by [[User:PhoenixWright]]. He only changed the wording of a heading slightly. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 07:31, 15 March 2008 (EDT)

Thanks Ed, Passed me by no matter how many times I read it![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 08:04, 15 March 2008 (EDT)

== Talk responses ==

Ed, I have a minor question. When I respond to someone like I responded to you above, should I respond on your User talk or mine - as I have done?[[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 17:26, 16 March 2008 (EDT)
: I'm not Ed, but if you don't mind, I'll give an answer.
: There's no requirement either way, but I think responding on the same page is the most common way of doing it, and many editors (including me) actually have a notice at the top of their talk page asking that people do that.
: [[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 21:16, 16 March 2008 (EDT)
==Midrash==
The Christian section belongs to an article on Christian Exegesis -- [[Image:50 star flag.png|12px]] [[User:Deborah]] [[Special:Contributions/Deborah|(contributions)]] [[User_talk:Deborah|(talk)]] 11:29, 1 April 2008 (EDT)

== Larry McDonald ==

Any chance you'll be filling this out shortly? [[User:Learn together|Learn together]] 20:58, 2 April 2008 (EDT)

Anybody ready and available to do the article on Larry McDonald?[[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 13:20, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

==Israeli tourism==

Nice article, vivid descriptions - I feel like I'm '''there'''. :-) --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 07:29, 3 April 2008 (EDT)

Thanks, Ed! [[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 11:18, 3 April 2008 (EDT)

==KAL shoot down==

Once again, thanks. Your summary of the navigation problems shows clearly that KAL 007 simply strayed off course and that the pilots did nothing to merit being shot down. Aren't there internationally accepted procedures (such as [[forced landing]]) for handling airspace violation, instead of killing two score dozen innocent people?

Anyway, it shows the inhuman monstrosity of the Soviet government, and perhaps the passengers and crew were martyrs whose sacrifice led to the long-awaited downfall of Soviet communism, which had killed over 60 million people. See, for example the [[Ukrainian genocide]] of [[Josef Stalin]].

So much history has yet to be written, maybe because it's simply too painful to remember. You do us all a great service by your writing. Thank you very much. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 06:40, 6 April 2008 (EDT)

:Thanks, again Ed. Yes, there are internationally accepted procedures. They were ignored by Osipovich and his commanders and Osipovich has retracted a number of statements he previously had made that indicated compliance with these procedures. The truth is coming out![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 07:12, 6 April 2008 (EDT)

::Do you have a published book I can buy from Amazon.com? --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 11:58, 15 July 2008 (EDT)

Yes, Ed. The book is Rescue 007: The Untold Story of KAL 007 and its Survivors. Here is the info how the book can be gotten (Also from Amazon) [http://www.rescue007.org/book.htm]

== Philosophy ==

Hi Bert

Could take a look to this article?: [[Philosophy]].

I am sure you could help a lot improving it. --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 14:37, 23 May 2008 (EDT)

Will do[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 15:13, 23 May 2008 (EDT)

: OK, thanks. --[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 02:11, 24 May 2008 (EDT)

== Promotion ==

Thanks for your contributions, Bert. You've been promoted to night editing, blocking powers and upload rights! Congratulations!--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 09:41, 5 July 2008 (EDT)

Thank you!

== Source? ==

Interesting image, Bert. Where's it from? It would help if you showed the source in the upload file. Thanks and Godspeed.--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 18:06, 5 August 2008 (EDT)

Andy, The picture I think that you are referring to is of a Vanya class minehunter, one of the 48 types of Soviet vessels in their "search" operation. It was taken by Paul Soutar, a naval photographer on the U.S. search operations, released by the Navy dept. and permission given to me by Soutar to use as I see fit. The reason I say "think you are referring" is that the picture is no longer in article, and when I tried upload again, I find that the image is "protected". what does that mean anyway?

Do you think the article will be a featured article and if so be up before the Sept 1. anniversary of shootdown?[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 18:25, 5 August 2008 (EDT)

==[[Soviet Union (history)]]==
You may be interested in "filling the blanks" at the bottom of this article on the Soviet Union's history. [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 02:35, 12 August 2008 (EDT)

Hello, Karajou. I'll look it over soon and see if I can do anything. Thanks for referring[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 06:44, 14 August 2008 (EDT)

== "KAL 007 Survivors and the Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the Russian Federation" ==

Bert, Hello!

How about you give me your idea for a shortened title, okay? Perhaps "KAL-007 Survivors and Gulags of Russia" ? Thanks! --[[User:TK|'''₮K''']]/Admin[[User_Talk:TK|/Talk]] 17:18, 1 March 2009 (EST)

:Done[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 01:57, 2 March 2009 (EST)

::Thanks! But wouldn't it have been easier for me to move it, with a rename? --[[User:TK|'''₮K''']]/Admin[[User_Talk:TK|/Talk]] 02:20, 2 March 2009 (EST)
Yes, just didn't know it could be done that way[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 04:55, 2 March 2009 (EST)

::Well, will do so, so don't be alarmed when you see the new title deleted, I need to do that to move the old one. That will keep all the edit history and talk intact. Yes, I know, sometimes that is a good thing, other times not so much! --[[User:TK|'''₮K''']]/Admin[[User_Talk:TK|/Talk]] 06:52, 2 March 2009 (EST)

== Images ==

When you go to upload a photo, you can re-name it to anything that you would like. I have deleted the recent airplane photo because of the inordinately long file name. Whatever is automatically filled into the name box, just shorten it, like "F-15a" or the like. --[[User:TK|'''₮K''']]/Admin[[User_Talk:TK|/Talk]] 01:30, 12 April 2009 (EDT)

== Conservative Bible Project ==

What education have you had in the ancient languages of the Bible, and the ancient languages spoken during Biblical times? Some of your recent edits to the Matthew pages suggest that your background is more extensive than is generally appreciated.

The administration is probably going to place me in charge of the project. Assuming that this will happen, I will need to know as much as possible of the linguistic background of anyone who wishes to act as a translator.--[[User:TerryH|TerryH]][[User talk:TerryH|Talk]] 14:02, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

I have taught, at the college level, Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic, New Testamenent Aramaic (Syriac), and am knowledgeable of Koine Greek of the New Testament and the influence of semitisms upon it. I speak modern Hebrew, a development from, among other things, the Mishnaic Hebrew which is helpful in New Testament studies. The very best to you in your job heading the translation project[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 15:41, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Well! Pleased to make your acquaintance, then. I think you need to understand something: I had no idea who you were, beyond that you were an authority on an unfortunate incident involving an airliner blasted out of the sky by the forces of the old [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]].

It goes without saying that I want you on my Committee on Translations.

Let me explain the thinking behind my approach to translation. You see, I sought to translate the Bible into not just good English but ''idiomatic'' English. that means, for example, translating phrases like "See thou to it" to "That's your problem" or "This is your responsibility" or "Let it be on your conscience," as you can see with how I handled [[Matthew 20-28 (Translated)#Chapter 27|Matthew 27]]. That's also why I decided to use American or British equivalents of weights, measures, and money where I did. The exact worth of a Roman denarius, sestertius, assarium, or quadrant isn't important. What's important is what Jesus was trying to convey with His use of the weights, measures, and coins of His day.

I'm explaining these things to you because, if we're going to work together, we each have to understand where the other is coming from.

Tomorrow I'm going to make a series of announcements. This project has been a piecework exercise for too long; it needs coordination. I need to know from you how much time you can spare to the project.

I have another request, though I'll understand if you have to decline. As you may or may not know, I am also the deputy administrator and developer of [[CreationWiki]]. Another thing you need to know is that CreationWiki is trying to be a multi-lingual project, like [[Wikipedia]]. Nearly two years ago we tried to extend CreationWiki into modern Hebrew. But something went wrong with our server, and all the Hebrew content was lost—and the editor we had, who was proficient in Hebrew, lost interest in the project.

I'd like to take another shot at a Hebrew extension. To do that, I need help, and specifically someone with the facility, and time, to translate our English content into modern Hebrew. So naturally I'm asking anyone I run across, who speaks modern Hebrew, if he's willing to help, or knows another Hebrew speaker who might be. And now I'm asking you.

Shalom,

--[[User:TerryH|TerryH]][[User talk:TerryH|Talk]] 20:07, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

O.K.,Terry, I read through Matt. 27 and thought about what you wrote, and I think that I can work with you, and take my cues from you about getting it into idiomatic English. Bfut I need to explain something to you.I am heavily involved still with KAL 007 and presently direct the International Committee for the Rescue of KAL 007 Survivors and I am the bishop of a small but active English speaking communion of the Aramaic Church. So the time I have is limited. Therefore Creation Wiki is out for me. Sorry! But I want to be part of the Bible translation project but concentrating on passages which as yet have no "proprosed translation" (I would like to start off with passages from the Epistle to the Hebrews). I don't think that I can tell now how much time I can dedicate, but I think I can say that I will be pitching in with the translations on a continuing basis. Also, I could serve as a resource person in translation doing the sort of thing languagewise that I have been doing. So, if it's O.K. with you and the powers that be, I'm on board.[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 22:26, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Excellent! I quite understand the limitations on your time.

For now: You wanted to work on the book of Hebrews? Good–I'll give you that assignment.

We'll use the page [[Talk:Conservative Bible Project]] as our "desk." Watch for my announcement on that page, and reply to me there, please.--[[User:TerryH|TerryH]][[User talk:TerryH|Talk]] 08:41, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

Will do. See you on the Conservative Bible Project talk page[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 08:56, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

== New guideline ==

Hey Bert,

I hope your Thanksgiving was good. Please be aware of our [http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservapedia:Guidelines#Assistants Guidelines] regarding blocking. Non-Administrators should not be blocking for reasons of policy, or subjective reasons such as user name, unless such name is blatantly obscene. Communications from blocked users should be passed on to one of the Admins as well.
Sincerely,

[[User:Geo.plrd|Geoff Plourde]][[User_talk:Geo.plrd|Complain!]] 20:48, 28 November 2009 (EST)

== [[Messianic Prophecies]] - copied from book? ==

Bert,

I was just putting Bible Quote templates into [[Messianic Prophecies]] when I noticed that it looked a lot like what I remember of an appendix to [[Josh McDowell]]'s ''[[Evidence that Demands a Verdict]]''. I don't have the book on me right now, so I can't be sure; but it (especially the style of quoting the Targums) sounds very similar. Did you copy this article from McDowell?

As far as I know, it's perfectly fine to use the quotes he's assembled as long as we rearrange them (as I've done) and add more (as we definitely should do). However, using his ''commentary'' on the passages (such as "Often it is said, rather dogmatically, that "God has no Son" in Judaism. But this is not true...") is a violation of [[copyright]] law unless we actually have McDowell's permission; so, we'd need to greatly edit the article.

Still, thanks for starting this much-needed article. I'd appreciate if you could respond at your earliest convenience and, if it was copied, help me re-write the commentary to fix the copyright violation.

--[[User:EvanW|EvanW]] 10:46, 4 December 2009 (EST)

EvanW,

The article is not a copy of Josh McDowell's book, it is taken from a Roman Catholic Israeli site. I think that I can work on it some, but there is a problem in just how far I can go. The actual Scripture verses that are used are well known and appears almost everywhere. Of course, the wording of the Scriptures cannot be tampered with. Lesser known is much of the quotes of the Commentary - taken from the Rabbinical literature. But these, too, can't be changed. Yet, I feel that they should not be left out. I have added one or two of my own commentary, but I decided to leave all the rest of the non citation commentary as is because to make changes, could only be superficial and stylistic. I'll try to do some, though, and perhaps delete some commentary, as well, and afterwards, you take a look, and perhaps you can do more revamping. The Bible Quote templates add a lot to it![[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 11:42, 4 December 2009 (EST)

:I'm very sorry about my accusation. I found [http://www.israelcatholic.com/content/view/49/77/lang,en/ the (very interesting) site] per your note. Of course, the Scriptures and the Talmud/Mishnah aren't under any copyright at all; copying them is great. But yes, let's try to make the commentary more original (web sites have copyright too...). I'll try to help out with that, and if you could help with the templates (just take a look at how I use them), it'd be great. --[[User:EvanW|EvanW]] 12:07, 4 December 2009 (EST)

EvanW, I'v looked through the commentaries. Very little can be done as they are excellent and to the point. But I will do a "cosmetic" approach, the best I can do, to comply with copyright law. I'll get to it hopefully within the next few days[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 17:30, 4 December 2009 (EST)

== Changes ==

'''Superb!''' Your changes have increased readability and made your contributions more concise and focused, Bert! I know it isn't said enough, but thanks for your continued positive and informative contributions! --<big>[[User:TK|'''ṬK''']]</big>/Admin[[User_Talk:TK|/Talk]] 07:07, 19 March 2010 (EDT)

You are welcome... and thank you!![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 07:58, 19 March 2010 (EDT)

== Andy's page ==

Your personal testimony was moving, and mirrors my own experience in hearing Billy speak, and finally getting to meet him personally. Like all great Prophets, Billy Graham has a way of making you feel he is speaking only to you, even though millions are hearing him. In person, you are instantly knowing he does know you, knows everything about you, and speaks directly to your doubts and questions. Thanks for the remembrance! --<big>[[User:TK|'''ṬK''']]</big>/Admin[[User_Talk:TK|/Talk]] 20:09, 6 April 2010 (EDT)

Yes, he's as you describe him![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 22:58, 6 April 2010 (EDT)

== Always learning.... ==

Thanks for your latest additions, Bert. You are indeed very focused, but I have to say there isn't one time where I have read one of your pieces that I haven't learned something new about a topic I thought I knew almost everything about! Today the World seems too eager to simply move on, all too soon. Bless you for keeping those poor souls alive in our thoughts, and exposing the truth. --<big>[[User:TK|'''ṬK''']]</big>/Admin[[User_Talk:TK|/Talk]] 08:17, 13 April 2010 (EDT)

Thank you![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 12:27, 13 April 2010 (EDT)

== Korean Airlines Flight 007 ==

If you want more web traffic to your Korean Airlines Flight 007 article, create a very good [[Korean Air]] article. [[User:Conservative|conservative]] 05:03, 8 May 2010 (EDT)

Thanks![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 12:35, 8 May 2010 (EDT)

== KAL ==

Your articles are very interesting. I really respect you for your efforts and I hope the truth is uncovered. I also added categories to a couple of the articles in the series that were missing a category, I hope you don't mind. [[User:Taj|Taj]] 14:58, 21 November 2011 (EST)

Not at all. Thanks![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 15:50, 23 November 2011 (EST)

== re: KAL 007 article on main page twice now ==

Bert, I changed the name to [[KAL 007: Soviet stalk, shoot down, and rescue mission orders transcripts]] so it would more neatly fit as a title and put it on the main page on the left side. [[User:Conservative|Conservative]] 08:54, 10 June 2012 (EDT)
:::Bert, I found a way to include it in the "In the news" section too which is located at main page - right. So now it is on the main page twice. [[User:Conservative|Conservative]] 09:06, 10 June 2012 (EDT)

== Putting own content into external links ==

Whilst some of your content on your blog is reasonable, I do think some others would think that it is quite inappropriate that you ''linkspam'' various articles with links to your blog. [[User:Dvergne|Dvergne]] 21:53, 22 November 2012 (EST)
:I didn't think of that. What do you suggest?[[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 21:55, 22 November 2012 (EST)
:: I don't really know unfortunately, It just seems like it is a bit of a conflict of interest if you know what I mean. [[User:Dvergne|Dvergne]] 21:58, 22 November 2012 (EST)
:::I think I'll not put any more up, and if someone thinks that it definitely is wrong, take down what is aleady up.[[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 22:01, 22 November 2012 (EST)
:::: Cheers, I personally have nothing wrong with what your are linking to, but it does look a bit inappropriate when a user is adding links to their personal blog. [[User:Dvergne|Dvergne]] 22:04, 22 November 2012 (EST)
Right. Got it. Thanks![[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 22:13, 22 November 2012 (EST)
:::::It's not inappropriate. One page is deserving of being hassled? Whether we agree or not, the mainpage has multiple blog links. --[[User:Jpatt|Jpatt]] 22:46, 22 November 2012 (EST)
::::::It is dozens of pages, and I must agree with Dvergne on this one. But Bert has promised to stop and invited us to remove the inappropriate links, so the matter is closed. Thanks, [[User:Wschact|Wschact]] 02:10, 23 November 2012 (EST)

Bert, if your blog links contain pertinent instruction or education related to the topic at hand, then by all means post them. [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 02:14, 23 November 2012 (EST)
:Particularly if the content is no-controversial. Otherwise it reminds me of a certain Court of Appeal Judge who used to write a lot of activist ''obiter dicta'' in his dissenting judgements. Then, years later, in judgments he would refer back to his activist ''obiter'' and say "there has been a significant movement in legal opinion on this issue" and use it as justification for his own views. --[[User:DamianJohn|DamianJohn]] 03:30, 23 November 2012 (EST)
:: As I said above your links are quite suitable, it's just that others may get a negative impression of having a person link to their personal bloggage and thus get a negative impression of conservapedia. [[User:Dvergne|Dvergne]] 03:39, 23 November 2012 (EST)
:::There are two questions. First, if the content is central to the CP article, encyclopedic material should be added to the CP article to properly cover the topic. Second, articles should contain external links to the best available internet sources related to the article topic. Judging by the user page BertSchlossberg is an accomplished person who has written a number of valuable works. However, it would be better if other people made the judgment that his blog is among the best external links that are appropriate for each page. When an editor adds material to an article, other people can edit it further and it becomes a community product. When an editor writes on a separate blog, it is his own viewpoint, priorities and phrasing. An author cannot be objective about his own blog, so it is best to leave it to others (regardless of the quality of the blog or its relevance to the particular CP page.) Respectfully, [[User:Wschact|Wschact]] 07:47, 23 November 2012 (EST)

== KAL 007 ==
The formatting of the KAL007 article looks like a dogs breakfast with random bits bolded and italicsed as well as pictures missing and massive gaps between paragraphs. Given you are the author of the article I suggest you are the best person to fix it. Also given the length of it I believe it should be split up with some of the less relevant sections moved to sub articles.

:Your main Korean Airlines Flight 007 article ranks #3 at Google USA which is a pretty good ranking.

:I did some formatting improvements so perhaps it might move to the #2 Google USA position over time. Specifically, I restored two usable pics (the other one was too blurry) plus added another pic to a sub KAL007 article. Please don't bold whole paragraphs in the future. It makes articles harder to read. [[User:Conservative|Conservative]] 21:52, 20 December 2012 (EST)

I took out some of the bold print, deleted a small section, I'll see what can b done about moving some material to a sub article. You mention the article as being in the 3rd position in Google USA. But I see the website of the International Committee for the Rescue of KAL 007 http://www.rescue007.org/ in the 3rd place, not the KAL 007 article of Conservapedia. Thanks for your work! [[User:BertSchlossberg|BertSchlossberg]] 23:16, 20 December 2012 (EST)

== Whyalla Airlines Flight 904 ==

I noticed that a lot of your articles contain the incorrect claim that there was never water ditching in aviation with no survivors. In Whyalla Airlines Flight 904, all passengers and crew perished after the engines failed and an emergency water landing was attempted. Also, the miracle on the Hudson was impressing, regardless of precedent: The numerous failures required paying the utmost attention to a barrage of warnings, all while landing on a river and hoping that the current was just right to allow emergency landing. Also, most, but not all of the events listed involved aircraft with engines above the wings, and precedent shows that water landings with aircraft that have engines below the wings+line of the main fuselage have lower survival rates; none were partial double-deck planes, which would cause the plane to sink nose-down quickly in water. (The KAL 007 was a heavy partial double-deck 747, a passenger jet most ideal for water ditching would be a DC-9: ideal engine placement, single deck)

Here's the final report for Whyalla Airlines Flight 904:
https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2000/aair/aair200002157.aspx

[[User:IluvAviation|IluvAviation]] ([[User talk:IluvAviation|talk]]) 09:19, 26 March 2017 (EDT) (Not a troll, just an aviation geek)

I tried to find out how to change my user name but was not successful. Can anyone help me?

Conservapedia:Community Portal

2017-03-29T17:02:14Z

BertSchlossberg:

<center>''This is the place to discuss issues of interest to the Conservapedia community.''</center>

[[Community Portal/Archives]]

''This page contains some material that has been moved from [[Talk:Main_Page]]. We are attempting to get general discussion of issues relating to Conservapedia's content and policies on this page, leaving the main talk page for its original purpose of discussing the content of the Main Page.''

__NEWSECTIONLINK__

== On proper grammar, or, did you know that most of the population of Texas is homosexual? ==

I have chided Cons repeatedly on proper punctuation, particularly regarding subordinate clauses and compound sentences. For a sample, see [[User_talk:SamHB#Re:_Aburke]].

Well, it turns out that the same errors can show up in unexpected places, like the Texas Republican party’s official platform. It has:
{{cquote|Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that is contrary to the fundamental unchanging truths that has been ordained by God in the Bible, recognized by our nations founders, and shared by the majority of Texans.}}

See [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/majority-of-texas-gay_us_573e88bfe4b0613b5129e31d this].

Watch those commas!!!! [[User:SamHB|SamHB]] ([[User talk:SamHB|talk]]) 11:57, 20 May 2016 (EDT)
:Wow. And shouldn't it be "have been ordained" rather than "has been ordained"? [[User:RobSmith|RobS]][[User talk:RobSmith| Pat Nixon for President]] 13:12, 20 May 2016 (EDT)

== States and Governors ==

I mentioned this earlier, but nothing happened - here are the U.S. states with red-linked governors:
{|
!state
!governor
!ann
|-
|[[Alaska]]|| [[Bill Walker]] ||
|-
|[[Arizona]]|| [[Doug Ducey]] ||
|-
|[[Arkansas]]|| [[Asa Hutchinson]] ||
|-
|[[Hawaii]]|| [[David Ige]] ||
|-
|[[Illinois]]|| [[Bruce Rauner]] ||
|-
|[[Maryland]]|| [[Larry Hogan]] || Thank you, [[User:DavidB4]]!
|-
|[[Montana]]|| [[Steve Bullock]] ||
|-
|[[Nebraska]]|| [[Pete Ricketts]] ||
|-
|[[New Hampshire]]|| [[Maggie Hassan]] ||
|-
|[[North Carolina]]|| [[Pat McCrory]] ||
|-
|[[Pennsylvania]]|| [[Tom Wolf]] ||
|-
|[[Rhode Island]]|| [[Gina Raimondo]] ||
|-
|[[Washington]]|| [[Jay Inslee]]
|}

It seems that [[Doug Ducey]] even isn't any longer governor of Arizona! The overall look of the articles on the smaller states is quite abysmal - and often outdated. As I am not American, I do not feel up to editing these articles in detail, but I have to ask: If they cannot use Conservapedia even to check who the governor of an U.S. state is, what will high-school pupils think of it? They have to rely on Wikipedia to get up-dated information!

It would be nice to have articles on the governors, too, just to check their political priorities. --[[User:AugustO|AugustO]] ([[User talk:AugustO|talk]]) 05:11, 24 May 2016 (EDT)

:I know a fair amount about political concepts, people I can have a hand in electing, and other well-known political figures. However, I know little about--if you'll pardon the expression--lesser politicians, who have little significance to me. Therefore, I'm sorry to say that I know almost nothing about these governors. However, I've done a little on a couple of them. I may do more, but all I can do is research then write based on what I find. It could be hopelessly inaccurate, but I have no way of knowing. For this reason, I'm trying not to add too much detail, since I don't want to make fa lse statements. If anyone else knows anything about them, please add to or revise what I've written! --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|talk]]) 11:01, 24 May 2016 (EDT)

::Well spoken, David. Speak of what you know; not of what some website wants you to believe. [[User:AlanE|AlanE]] ([[User talk:AlanE|talk]]) 02:57, 26 May 2016 (EDT)
== One column footnoting vs. two column footnoting and mobile devices ==

For this article [[Operation Compass]] I added footnoting code at the bottom of the article for the new editor.

If you look at the article, you will see that the footnoting is one column footnoting and not two column footnoting.

I think I recall reading that one column footnoting is better for mobile device readers, but I am not sure. Do you know if this is the case or not?

Also, if you look at my edit which is [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Operation_Compass&diff=1224027&oldid=1224024 HERE], you will see that my column width is colwidth=30em . I think this might be better for mobile devices as well, but I am not sure.

If I am right about these two matters, I think Conservapedia's manual of style should be updated. Also, we might want to clean up our most high traffic articles so one column format is used.

Does anyone know about these matters? I ask because a lot of people are using mobile devices now. [[User:Conservative|Conservative]] ([[User talk:Conservative|talk]]) 03:11, 5 June 2016 (EDT)

:I don't know, but I have a testing platform I might be able to use tomorrow, if no one else knows either. It would have sense that single columns would be better, but the Wiki software comes with a mobile mode, so this might counteract columns. I'll try to get back to you on this. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|talk]]) 23:26, 5 June 2016 (EDT)
::I'll do some real-world testing tomorrow, but if you click the "Mobile View" link in CP's footer ([http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Operation_Compass&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile here's the direct link]), you can see that columns are removed completely. Therefore, it seems that it shouldn't matter what we do for columns. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|talk]]) 00:38, 6 June 2016 (EDT)
:::A big problem with 2 column footnotes is that if there are a small number of footnotes, it will break them up with only one or two words in the second column. It does not have code to put the column break between two different footnotes. Thank you DavidB for cleaning this up. [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 04:39, 6 June 2016 (EDT)
::::I'm not very good at designing templates for Wikis, but I wonder if someone could fix that. Anyway, I did a little testing and all the mobile platforms I tried did load the wiki's mobile view, with the single column of references. I even tried the [[Atheism]] article, with its three columns and had the same result, even if it was painfully slow due to the size of the page. It looks like we can do columns for computers only without worrying about mobile viewing. If you have anything else you want me to check, though, let me know! --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|talk]]) 08:39, 6 June 2016 (EDT)
OK. Thanks. [[User:Conservative|Conservative]] ([[User talk:Conservative|talk]]) 10:32, 6 June 2016 (EDT)

== Is Trump the new Zachary Taylor? ==

That's what this article argues: "[http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/history-campaign-politics-zachary-taylor-killed-whigs-political-party-213935 How an outsider president killed a party]." Taylor, elected president in 1848, was the ultimate outsider candidate, even more so than Trump. He had no political experience whatsoever, and he proudly boasted that he had never even voted. When he was nominated by the Whig Party, he was known only as the commander who defeated the Mexicans at Buena Vista. But I can't agree with the article's headline. Taylor was not the guy responsible for the downfall of the Whigs. That would be Millard Fillmore, Taylor's vice president. If Taylor was the non-ideological celebrity candidate of 1848, Fillmore was a true believer, a Whig version of Ted Cruz. Whig ideology called for the president to defer to Congress. Taylor died in office after a year. When Fillmore succeed, the long-frustrated "ultra Whigs" finally got their day in the sun. It was a disaster. Although personally opposed to slavery, Fillmore deferred to Congress as a good Whig. This meant strictly enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. It was a combination of views made him hugely unpopular, both in the North and in the South. The party collapsed in 1852. [[User:PeterKa|PeterKa]] ([[User talk:PeterKa|talk]]) 02:50, 10 June 2016 (EDT)

== They're at it again ==

Is there anyone around who can block these people? There still creating accounts. Maybe we should add "1.888.811.4532" to the spam filter. [[User:SamHB|SamHB]] ([[User talk:SamHB|talk]]) 22:22, 11 September 2016 (EDT)

:Blocked--finally. You're right, they keep using text from the same crawls of Amazon and Quickbooks. It should be easy to add temporary entries to the spam filter. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 23:14, 11 September 2016 (EDT)

::They're still at it. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 10:48, 13 September 2016 (EDT)

== Is the server clock messed up? ==

The clock seems to be a few hours fast. According to what it says, I'm going to try to repair the E=mc^2 article at about 04:30. It is now 00:46 EDT. Or have you switched to UTC? I thought CP was on EST/EDT. [[User:SamHB|SamHB]] ([[User talk:SamHB|talk]]) 00:47, 1 October 2016 (EDT)

Never mind. It's back on EDT now. [[User:SamHB|SamHB]] ([[User talk:SamHB|talk]]) 00:59, 1 October 2016 (EDT)
==Fair use images==
What is our policy on fair use of copyrighted or trademark-protected images? Please take a look at: [[File:Pajamas Media logo.gif]]. Thanks, [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 06:29, 9 November 2016 (EST)

:I am not aware of a specific, written code to follow regarding this on CP. In general, I think most people here try to avoid copyrighted images. However, some use them as WP does (any image, anytime, anywhere can be uses under Fair Use, it seems is their policy), and no one here seems to object. Personal, I try to avoid copyrights except when the copyright is help by an organization friendly to CP. Answers In Genesis I have no problem with, because it is my assumption that I probably have the legal right, but in any case I expect they appreciate friendly publicity. I could always be wrong, though... 
:Trademark laws are a little less restrictive, and since we are not selling a product under their trademark, it is my understanding that it is usually acceptable to use these images. However, if they are also copyrighted, I usually will not. Even in court, Fair Use is a pain, because it is ambiguous, but I'd advise that you err on the side of caution. I could be mistaken, but it seems to me that for the most part, each person does what they think is right. (Perhaps like "...every man did that which was right in his own eyes." -Judges 21:25?) 
:I'll stop rambling in just a moment, but a pseudo-legal definition I've heard is "Spontaneous usage of a portion of a work for a purpose which generates no profit for the user, nor takes profit from the owner." Other definitions I've heard almost always also include some element of spontaneity, such as a teacher sees an article online, prints off a page or two of it, and hands it out to the class for study in class. I don't know where to draw the line, though. As you probably know better than I, WP seems to assume that anything is fine to use, since it is for education purposes and does not directly generate revenue for them (though nice articles tend to lead to more donations). It may be alright to use this policy since they get away with it, but I personally prefer not to risk it for the most part. Perhaps an admin here knows more on the topic. I know I've spoken to Jpatt about copyright issues before, so you could always try asking him directly, if you don't get a satisfactory answer here. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 13:31, 19 November 2016 (EST)

::This is the guidelines for images here:[http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservapedia:Manual_of_Style/Images] [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] ([[User talk:Karajou|talk]]) 13:45, 19 November 2016 (EST)

== Hillary's Downfall ==

The original (and still hysterically funny) version is [http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d0a842c3d2/hillarys-downfall-from-jamesadomian?_cc=__d___&_ccid=083fa30c-ba08-42dd-808c-3f889f16dab6 here]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYyMF7IZ9Dw This version] is updated for 2016. [[User:PeterKa|PeterKa]] ([[User talk:PeterKa|talk]]) 00:33, 18 November 2016 (EST)

== Browser search engine: Conservapedia ==

It seems that most browsers have Wikipedia listed as one of the available search engines. It occurs to me that some might find the same useful for CP. What do you all think? I've stared [[User:DavidB4/search conservapedia|a page]] to show what I'm thinking. Can I get some input? 
One important factor is that I don't think this can be easily set up for Internet Explorer. Also, Firefox is being a problem, but I may be able to assemble an XML file that works. Is something like this worth publishing? (see: [[User:DavidB4/search conservapedia]]) --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 01:36, 23 November 2016 (EST)

== Math conundrum ==
This meme started in Japan and is confounding people across the Internet:
:<big><big>x=9-3÷⅓+1</big></big> [[User:PeterKa|PeterKa]] ([[User talk:PeterKa|talk]]) 04:45, 27 November 2016 (EST)
::Are you suggesting that if a high school student read CP, he could not find what he needs to answer this correctly? [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 03:10, 29 December 2016 (EST)
==Was Hitler a Catholic?==
The article [[Liberal myths]] says "They claim Hitler was a Catholic." The article [[Christian In Name Only]] says "Despite being raised Roman Catholic and claiming that Jesus was his inspiration, Hitler was only using Christianity to gain favor with the German people. His true beliefs were based off of his social darwinistic views." It also includes "The Catholic Church" as all being XINO. What are we trying to communicate here? That liberals are wrong in claiming that Hitler was a Catholic in name only, or that because Hitler was raised a Catholic, even if Hitler had remained a faithful practitioner of Catholicism, he would still be just a XINO? Or that liberals claim that Hitler was true to the teaching and spirit of the Catholic Church in his every thought and deed? Or is it a liberal myth that the complexity of Christianity can be reduced to a short list of XINOs? Please help! [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 03:10, 29 December 2016 (EST)

:My beliefs may differ from CPs, but as I understand it, Hitler claimed to be a catholic to win favor. He was not (he was actually very involved in the occult) but even if he had been, it would have been questionable whether he was a Christian or not. His actions proved he was not a Christian or a catholic, however, so I suppose you could say he was two-fold Christian in name only. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 09:32, 29 December 2016 (EST)

::Many secular liberals like to claim that Hitler was a Christian or a Roman Catholic in order to blame Christianity for the Holocaust, as well as every other evil in the world. That's all it is. Hitler clearly opposed Christianity,[http://answers.org/apologetics/hitquote.html][https://answersingenesis.org/charles-darwin/racism/darwinism-and-the-nazi-race-holocaust/] believed in evolution, [https://answersingenesis.org/charles-darwin/racism/hitler-and-evolution/] and tried to modify Protestantism in Germany into a XINO organization that adhered to Nazi beliefs.[https://answersingenesis.org/sanctity-of-life/the-results-of-evolution/] (I also read somewhere that Hitler wished that Islam were the dominant religion in Europe because it was "stronger" and he thus could use it better). I think what the article is saying is that Hitler, like the R.C.C., claimed to be Christian, but in reality had beliefs far from biblical Christianity. His denomination does not appear to really matter. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 12:15, 29 December 2016 (EST)
:::Historians have generally viewed the Pope and the Roman Catholic hierarchy as being complicit in spreading anti-Semitism and being supportive of the Holocaust. However, the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church have changed a lot since 1939, particularly for blaming the Jews for Christ's death. I believe that it is probably a mistake to list the entire Roman Catholic Church as XINO, and the terse "They claim Hitler was a Catholic." is too condensed to help the reader. There are many ways to criticize liberals, and this one is probably so weak that most people would not list it. If the Roman Catholic Church is XINO, what about the Mormons? [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 13:00, 29 December 2016 (EST)
::::I (and probably the person who added the R.C.C.) believe the R.C.C. is XINO because of theological reasons rather than promoting politically left-wing ideology (even though I could name some R.C. clergy who would be better characterized as leftist activists). On issues such as the way to salvation (the most important one), the R.C.C. follows doctrine that the Bible not only does not support, but also speaks against. Same with the Mormons. That is why the R.C.C. is listed here.
::::Also, because so many Roman Catholics edit CP, I should make myself clear that I have nothing against Catholics or Mormons, and I think many of them are great people. I say what I say not to bash them but to point out that many of their doctrines are false and unbiblical. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 13:16, 29 December 2016 (EST)
:::::I also enjoy working with Catholics and Mormons. I find religion to be very deep and textured. At this point in my life, when I look back at all of the decisions and judgments that I have made, I no longer can tell where religion ends and my personal ethics takes over -- everything was baked together. I think that wikis or general encyclopedias are not suited for religious teaching or debate. So, I cringe when I read the stuff on [[Liberal myths]] and [[Christian In Name Only]]. It is like trying to publish a book called "Religion for Dummies." [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 14:00, 29 December 2016 (EST)
::::::Yes, it can be a problem when people with very different theological beliefs (despite the same political and cultural views) edit articles like that. I do think, however, that both Roman Catholics and Protestants have no problem with the material on "Liberal myths." I could be wrong, but the XINO article seems to have been quite stable over the years, which is quite remarkable, considering the disagreements of our editors. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 15:37, 29 December 2016 (EST)
:::::::Hitler was from Austria. At that time, everyone in Austria was Catholic. So he was Catholic in the sense that he didn't publicaly break with the faith. ''Hitler's Table Talk'' records what he said in private dinner conversations. He's real views was Nietzschean and social Darwinist, according to the book. He thought Christianity is for weaklings, and so forth. [[User:PeterKa|PeterKa]] ([[User talk:PeterKa|talk]]) 22:31, 29 December 2016 (EST)
::::::::New book says [https://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Religion-Twisted-Beliefs-Drove/dp/1621575004 Hitler was a ''pantheist''.] That puts him in bed witbh Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, and Steven Hawking. Which makes sense. [[User:RobSmith|RobS]][[User talk:RobSmith|''#NeverHillary'']] 01:23, 30 December 2016 (EST)

== Conservatism sells: The growth of followers of conservatives on Twitter ==

See [[Top conservatives on Twitter]] for current number of followers of top Twitter users considered to be conservative. Of those Twitter posters whose accounts on that page are still in existence, none lost in their total number of followers over the whole year of 2016.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:98%; margin:left;"
|+ Promoters of conservatism with large gains of followers on Twitter, 2016 (top 20 each category)
|+
!Twitter poster
!Increase in followers 2016
!Percent increase in followers
|-
|align="left"|Pres.-Elect [[Donald J. Trump]]
|align="right"|+13,053,000
|align="right"|+237%
|-
|align="left"|Dr. [[Ben Carson]]
|align="right"|+1,475,000
|align="right"|+136%
|-
|align="left"|[[Michelle Malkin]]
|align="right"|+943,000
|align="right"|+105%
|-
|align="left"|[[Sean Hannity]]
|align="right"|+697,000
|align="right"|+56%
|-
|align="left"|[[Laura Ingraham]]
|align="right"|+550,000
|align="right"|+89%
|-
|align="left"|[[Ann Coulter]]
|align="right"|+463,000
|align="right"|+63%
|-
|align="left"|Judge [[Jeanine Pirro]]
|align="right"|+292,000
|align="right"|+222%
|-
|align="left"|[[Franklin Graham]]
|align="right"|+277,000
|align="right"|+59%
|-
|align="left"|[[Sarah Palin]]
|align="right"|+226,000
|align="right"|+20%
|-
|align="left"|[[Tucker Carlson]]
|align="right"|+224,000
|align="right"|+89%
|-
|align="left"|[[Steven Crowder]]
|align="right"|+180,000
|align="right"|+122%
|-
|align="left"|[[Dinesh D'Souza]]
|align="right"|+166,000
|align="right"|+69%
|-
|align="left"|[[Mark Levin]]
|align="right"|+157,000
|align="right"|+30%
|-
|align="left"|[[James O'Keefe]]
|align="right"|+147,000
|align="right"|+198%
|-
|align="left"|[[Katie Pavlich]]
|align="right"|+145,000
|align="right"|+70%
|-
|align="left"|[[Allen West]]
|align="right"|+137,000
|align="right"|+29%
|-
|align="left"|Dr. [[Charles Krauthammer]]
|align="right"|+121,000
|align="right"|+20%
|-
|align="left"|[[Monica Crowley]]
|align="right"|+114,000
|align="right"|+42%
|-
|align="left"|[[Linda Suhler]], Ph. D.
|align="right"|+90,000
|align="right"|+48%
|-
|align="left"|Gov. [[Greg Abbott]]
|align="right"|+65,000
|align="right"|+40%
|-
|align="left"|[[John Nolte]]
|align="right"|+46,000
|align="right"|+74%
|-
|align="left"|[[Dennis Prager]]
|align="right"|+28,000
|align="right"|+50%
|-
|align="left"|[[Hugh Hewitt]]
|align="right"|+42,000
|align="right"|+47%
|-
|align="left"|[[Nikki Haley]]
|align="right"|+57,000
|align="right"|+47%
|-
|align="left"|Sen. [[Tim Scott]]
|align="right"|+51,000
|align="right"|+45%
|-
|}

[[User:VargasMilan|VargasMilan]] ([[User talk:VargasMilan|talk]]) 01:15, 9 January 2017 (EST)
:A better example of conservatism actually selling is Milo's book deal with Simon & Schuster.[http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/1/3/14119080/milo-yiannopoulos-book-deal-simon-schuster-dangerous-boycott] Historically, the only conservatives the "big five" book publishers dealt with were those with bankable personalities, i.e. people who had a built-in audiences due to regular appearances on Fox News or whatever. Only Regnery would publish books by lesser-known conservatives. Liberals think Al Franken is a great comedian because he wrote ''Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot''. Why can't they see the humor in “[http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/07/05/fat-shaming-is-good-science/ Science Proves It: Fat-Shaming Works]”? [[User:PeterKa|PeterKa]] ([[User talk:PeterKa|talk]]) 23:09, 4 January 2017 (EST)

== Alexa rank ==

User:Conservative was "crowing" about how Conservapedia in April of last year had reached 100,000 on the Alexa world rank. As of today [http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/conservapedia.com], it's reached a global ranking of 55,877.

Is this a new record? Does the increase reflect only a seasonal factor or impressive growth? Do you suppose people around the world want to know more about conservatism now that conservatives have outvoted the opposition to help elect their preference to be the next President? [[User:VargasMilan|VargasMilan]] ([[User talk:VargasMilan|talk]]) 03:18, 9 January 2017 (EST)
:We're sorely lacking in new content. All that new traffic to read many articles which are outdated and have not been maintained. I don't know... [[User:RobSmith|RobS]][[User talk:RobSmith|''#NeverHillary'']] 07:42, 9 January 2017 (EST)

::The graph makes it look like a record. As a site grows, the number does usually drop, so this seems to be a good sign. RobS has a point, though--we have a lot of outdated content, so at the very least we need to spiff it up so we don't loose traffic.
::On a side note, I am suspicious of the 7.5% of traffic from China. Firstly, we don't have any significant Chinese content, secondly the "great firewall of china" probably blocks citizens form accessing CP, and thirdly China is notorious for their cyber attacks as of late. Oh well... --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 09:47, 9 January 2017 (EST)

:::I should note that we are still growing internationally, but we are starting to shrink in the U.S. (after a long period of growth and reaching what likely was a record high, of course). In mid-December, we were at 12,535 in the U.S., but now we are at 16,553. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 10:37, 9 January 2017 (EST)
::::Forty percent of our traffic is from search engines. Nine percent of the search engine traffic goes to the [[Poe's law]] article. [[User:PeterKa|PeterKa]] ([[User talk:PeterKa|talk]]) 12:50, 9 January 2017 (EST)
:::::@DavidB, so what do you think? Putin is routing traffic through Chinese servers to influence French and German elections? [[User:RobSmith|RobS]][[User talk:RobSmith|''#NeverHillary'']] 10:34, 10 January 2017 (EST)
::::::@RobS Don't say that too loud, or the MSM will start screaming it! It sounds just like something they would say. I assume your comment was in jest but text doesn't carry inflection, so just to be clear, no I don't think that! I'm not sure what to think about that traffic--it seems odd, and I'm not sure how to explain it. It could be genuine, but I'd sooner suspect something synthetic...Chinese hacking???? --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 11:06, 10 January 2017 (EST)
:::::::Either hacking or the Chinese are interested in American politics because of the election. I sure hope its not the first one! --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 11:09, 10 January 2017 (EST)

::::::::I hope so too. The website is still here, so that's a good sign at least. (Although realistically, they usually gather information rather than destroy it.) --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 11:16, 10 January 2017 (EST)
:::::::::Whoever it is, their culling for ideas. CP has become pivotal in the global struggle against [[globalization]] and the [[New World Order]]. [[User:RobSmith|RobS]][[User talk:RobSmith|''#NeverHillary'']] 12:25, 10 January 2017 (EST)

== Unlock Template:Infobox person? ==

Could I get someone to unlock the [[:Template:Infobox person]] page? It should have some more elements, and perhaps be merged with [[:Template:Infobox person2]]. Thanks! --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 11:24, 12 January 2017 (EST)
==New templates to mark direction of changes==
I have added five new templates, which I hope will gain widespread adoption. These templates show icons to indicate increase or decrease, such as ranking in a list or company profit.

* {{Increase}}: {{tl|Increase}}, to show an increase or going up in rankings
* {{Decrease}}: {{tl|Decrease}}, to show a decrease or going down in rankings
* {{Steady}}: {{tl|Steady}} = to show no change

An optional first argument alters the tooltip comment. For example, <nowiki>{{Decrease|-5%}} </nowiki>produces -5%.

In cases where a symbol is needed to represent an increase that is "bad" or a decrease that is "good", such as a rise or fall in road accident fatalities, the following should be used:

* {{IncreaseNegative}}:{{tl|IncreaseNegative}}, to show an increase which is actually bad.
* {{DecreasePositive}}: {{tl|DecreasePositive}}, to show a decrease which is actually good.
Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. Thanks, [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 08:13, 27 January 2017 (EST)
==Political directory==
A few years ago, some editors copied a lot of political directory information into CP. For example, the state articles list all of the Senators and Congressmen and the infobox has the Senators' telephone numbers. Much of this has changed in the 2014 and 2016 elections. In some cases, like [[Elizabeth Warren]], the junior senator has become the senior senator of the state. I have corrected [[Ohio]], but do not want to fix all of this by myself. Can we organize a work list and cross off each state as it is updated? Please let me know if you want to help. [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 09:22, 15 February 2017 (EST)

:I can't say I'm thrilled at the idea, but I can try to chip in a little, as time permits. That's a very good idea, and I'm glad you noticed--I'm just not sure how much time I can contribute. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 11:03, 15 February 2017 (EST)
::In my state even the official state website hasn't been updated in more than two years (it still lists an officer sitting in jail as Secretary of State). I'm sure the lazy government bureaucrats blame Republican budget cuts who took over the legislature in 2014. [[User:RobSmith|RobS]][[User talk:RobSmith|CIA vs Trump. Who's gonna win?]] 21:33, 15 February 2017 (EST)
:::This project is focusing on 1) list of US Congressmen and Senators and 2) Senators in infobox. [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 00:27, 16 February 2017 (EST)

Sources: http://www.house.gov/representatives/ and https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC When you have finished with a state, cross the state name out using <nowiki><s>State</s></nowiki>.
{| class="wikitable"
|
* [[Alabama]]: Dec. 14, 1819
* <s>[[Alaska]]: Jan. 3, 1959</s>
* <s>[[Arizona]]: Feb. 14, 1912</s>
* <s>[[Arkansas]]: Jun. 15, 1836</s>
* <s>[[California]]: Sep. 9, 1850</s>
* <s>[[Colorado]]: Aug. 1, 1876</s>
* <s>[[Connecticut]]: Jan. 9, 1788</s>
* [[Delaware]]: Dec. 7, 1787
* <s>[[Florida]]: Mar. 3, 1845</s>
* <s>[[Georgia]]: Jan. 2, 1788</s>
* <s>[[Hawaii]]: Aug. 21, 1959</s>
* <s>[[Idaho]]: Jul. 3, 1890</s>
* [[Illinois]]: Dec. 3, 1818
* <s>[[Indiana]]: Dec. 11, 1816</s>
* <s>[[Iowa]]: Dec. 28, 1846</s>
* <s>[[Kansas]]: Jan. 29, 1861</s>
* [[Kentucky]]: Jun. 1, 1792
* <s>[[Louisiana]]: Apr. 30, 1812</s>
* <s>[[Maine]]: Mar. 15, 1820</s>
* [[Maryland]]: Apr. 28, 1788
* <s>[[Massachusetts]]: Feb. 6, 1788</s>
* <s>[[Michigan]]: Jan. 26, 1837</s>
* <s>[[Minnesota]]: May 11, 1858</s>
* <s>[[Mississippi]]: Dec. 10, 1817</s>
* [[Missouri]]: Aug. 10, 1821
|
* <s>[[Montana]]: Nov. 8, 1889</s>
* <s>[[Nebraska]]: Mar. 1, 1867</s>
* <s>[[Nevada]]: Oct. 31, 1864</s>
* <s>[[New Hampshire]]: Jun. 21, 1788</s>
* <s>[[New Jersey]]: Dec. 18, 1787</s>
* <s>[[New Mexico]]: Jan. 6, 1912 </s>
* <s>[[New York]]: Jul. 26, 1788</s>
* <s>[[North Carolina]]: Nov. 21, 1789</s>
* <s>[[North Dakota]]: Nov. 2, 1889</s>
* [[Ohio]]: Mar. 1, 1803
* <s>[[Oklahoma]]: Nov. 16, 1907</s>
* <s>[[Oregon]]: Feb. 14, 1859</s>
* <s>[[Pennsylvania]]: Dec. 12, 1787</s>
* <s>[[Rhode Island]]: May 29, 1790</s>
* <s>[[South Carolina]]: May 23, 1788</s>
* <s>[[South Dakota]]: Nov. 2, 1889</s>
* <s>[[Tennessee]]: Jun. 1, 1796</s>
* [[Texas]]: Dec. 29, 1845
* <s>[[Utah]]: Jan. 4, 1896</s>
* [[Vermont]]: Mar. 4, 1791
* [[Virginia]]: Jun. 25, 1788
* <s>[[Washington]]: Nov. 11, 1889</s>
* [[West Virginia]]: Jun. 20, 1863
* [[Wisconsin]]: May 29, 1848
* <s>[[Wyoming]]: Jul. 10, 1890</s>
|}
Many thanks to Pokeria1, AMorrow, and DavidB4 for their help on this project. [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 13:44, 16 February 2017 (EST)

'''Since we finished the federal officers faster than I expected, I am proposing a Phase II, where we go back and check the names of the state-wide officers''' listed in each of the above articles. After you have checked an article please change <nowiki><s>state</s> to state</nowiki>. Many thanks! [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 10:59, 17 February 2017 (EST)

:I recommend adding the phrase "As of 2017" to the "Elected officials" sections of each state. With this, we will know the exact date when these officials were all in power, and we will hopefully be more compelled to update the list later. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 00:01, 18 February 2017 (EST)
::That may work unless there is a mid-year vacancy. I am troubled that some of these pages were not updated for 4 or more years. I am also looking for references to folks that made recent moves, for example we have a new Alabama Attorney General, because the old one joined the Senate to fill Jeff Session's seat. [[User:JDano|JDano]] ([[User talk:JDano|talk]]) 02:56, 18 February 2017 (EST)

== Conservapedia IRC channel ==

Our [[Internet Relay Chat]] article claims that we have channel on freenode. However, it has not been used for quite some time (last used April 6th, 2008 at 17:52:59, to be exact). Has the channel been moved, or does CP no longer have IRC? If it exists, I'd like to join it. If not, someone should delete that statement from the IRC article. Thanks! --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 16:48, 16 February 2017 (EST)

== Uncategorized images ==

All the images on the page [[Railway track]] are uncategorized. Could they please be added to a category, such as [[:Category:Rail transport]]. I cannot add them myself because they are protected. [[User:Desmonduk|Desmonduk]] ([[User talk:Desmonduk|talk]]) 11:29, 23 February 2017 (EST)

:That's a good idea. I've been pushing for a image categorizing project for a while, but the problem is that only full admins can unprotect images. That would be a massive undertaking, and they have other more time-sensitive things to work on. Therefore, this just doesn't get done. The site software automatically generates a list of images which as not categorized here: [[Special:UncategorizedFiles]]. If you can make progress with this, that would be great. However, you will need a full administrator to do it. [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Special%3AListUsers&username=&group=sysop&editsOnly=1&creationSort=1&limit=100 Here] is a list of registered admins, but most of them seem inactive now. Jpatt, Karajou, Aschlafly, Conservative, TerryH, and Ed Poor are the only once I can remember seeing contribute in the recent past. You could ask them, but you may have the same luck as me. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 12:17, 23 February 2017 (EST)

::Thank you. [[User:Desmonduk|Desmonduk]] ([[User talk:Desmonduk|talk]]) 18:06, 23 February 2017 (EST)

:::I have created an index to the Uncategorized images at [[Uncategorized files]]. [[User:Desmonduk|Desmonduk]] ([[User talk:Desmonduk|talk]]) 08:44, 25 February 2017 (EST)
::::Wow. What a task. Thanks for doing that. We should post reminders wherever neccessary, and Andy should emphasize before granting upload priveleges, to please add a category when uploading, rather than leaving the burden to somebody else later. Too many editors with upload privileges are in the habit of uploading in haste and creating massive redundancy and confusion for the whole project later.

::::Is there a program or extension that would stop an upload until a category is added? Thanks. [[User:RobSmith|RobS]][[User talk:RobSmith|CIA vs Trump. Who's gonna win?]] 14:19, 25 February 2017 (EST)

:::::Thanks, Desmonduk!
:::::The greater problem now is not that the images were uploaded this way, but that they were locked, so only an admin can unlock and edit them. I must dig for sometimes 10-15 minutes before I can find an unprotected uncategorized file which I can deal with. It's a terrible waste of time. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 15:52, 25 February 2017 (EST)

::::::You are welcome. I am enjoying editing Conservapedia because I don't get the abuse I used to get on Wikipedia. [[User:Desmonduk|Desmonduk]] ([[User talk:Desmonduk|talk]]) 18:24, 26 February 2017 (EST)

==Attorney General [[Jeff Sessions]]==

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is no longer a conservative tweeter. Is it because he is no longer a conservative? By no means—rather it is because he is no longer a tweeter. Sessions deleted his account very recently, with all likelihood because of his preparation for, and because of his changed priorities in, carrying out his weighty new responsibilities. I will keep an eye out for his Twitter presence in case he returns and hope the Conservapedia community will do so as well. [[User:VargasMilan|VargasMilan]] ([[User talk:VargasMilan|talk]]) 19:57, 3 March 2017 (EST)

== User:ChristopherW ==

I am a little concerned about the blocking of User:ChristopherW - see [[Special:Contributions/ChristopherW]]. It is not clear to me what he has done wrong. [[User:Desmonduk|Desmonduk]] ([[User talk:Desmonduk|talk]]) 20:13, 23 March 2017 (EDT)
:As far as ChristoherW's edit to the microevolution article which was [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Microevolution&diff=prev&oldid=1324198 "They are, needless to say, wrong."], would a print encyclopedia say something that is needless to say? No, they would not. It was obviously snarky trolling. There were other signs of snarky trolling as well.

:I do realize that he made some useful edits. That is what the smarter parodist/trolls do.

:Conservapedia has had a handful of parodists who have uncloaked themselves and indicated that were parodists after contributing more than a perfunctory amount of content. In each and every case, I told fellow admins my suspicions and I was right 100% of the time. Their parody type material (or other unsuitable material) was quickly deleted as they went along. In some cases I put them to work as I knew they were smart enough to create quality articles. I got User: Rodweathers to create the [[Atheism and beliefs]] article and User: Bible Sherman to create the [[Soviet atheism]] article.

:Unfortunately, User:ChristopherW was either unable or unwilling to create quality articles. His article on a Koran topic was a horrible article.

:After all is said and done, I will not unblock him. The costs outweigh the benefits. [[User:Conservative|Conservative]] ([[User talk:Conservative|talk]])

::Noted, thank you. [[User:Desmonduk|Desmonduk]] ([[User talk:Desmonduk|talk]]) 18:57, 24 March 2017 (EDT)
:::Thanks. I improved the [[microevolution]] article. I added the necessary additional material which supposedly was unnecessary to say. :) My guess is that User: ChristopherW was probably ignorant on the topic of microevolution vs. macroevolution and if he got in a public debate with a creationist he would very likely lose (see: [[Creation scientists tend to win debates with evolutionists]]). [[User:Conservative|Conservative]] ([[User talk:Conservative|talk]]) 19:15, 24 March 2017 (EDT)

== Vaccination ==

I am thinking of creating an article: [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Vaccination]]. Wikipedia is fanatically pro-vaccination. This is very apparent in the Wikipedia article Vaxxed [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaxxed]. It is allegedly about the film "Vaxxed" but is actually a potentially libelous character assassination of Dr Andrew Wakefield. My own view is that parents should be allowed to decide for themselves whether or not to have their children vaccinated. Is this in line with Conservapedia policy? [[User:Desmonduk|Desmonduk]] ([[User talk:Desmonduk|talk]]) 08:55, 27 March 2017 (EDT)

:As long as you stick to the facts and cite you sources, as always, I don't see a problem. Vaccination is something liberals like to push, often using the "herd mentality" (if you don't do this, others will suffer, and by doing this, you help everyone). There are definitely some reasons not to take vaccinations, so an article like this makes sense. I haven't read WP's article, but probably they are ignoring the inconvenient truths of how destructive and ineffective vaccines can be, as they tend to do on other topics as well. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 11:11, 27 March 2017 (EDT)

::Thank you. [[User:Desmonduk|Desmonduk]] ([[User talk:Desmonduk|talk]]) 11:21, 27 March 2017 (EDT)

:::One tip: when citing the Wikipedia articles as evidence, please be sure to use the permanent links, as the article content can change. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 15:35, 27 March 2017 (EDT)

I tried to find out how to change my User Name but was unsuccessful. Can anyone help me?

User:BertSchlossberg

2017-03-29T16:38:33Z

BertSchlossberg: Replaced content with "==About me=="

==About me==

User:BertSchlossberg

2017-03-29T16:31:25Z

BertSchlossberg:

==About me==

Bert Schlossberg

The son-in-law of one of the passengers of the ill-fated [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]], shot down by a Russian air-to-air missile in 1983, Bert Schlossberg has dedicated the past twenty years to researching the question of passenger rescue and survival, as well as Soviet resistance to disclosure connected with this mysterious flight. He is also one of the principal contributors to these three Wikipedia articles on KAL 007: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007], Korean Air Lines Flight 007 alternate theories [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007_alternate_theories], and Korean Air Lines Flight 007 transcripts [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007_transcripts]

Due to his close association with the Israeli Research Center for Prisons, Psychprisons, and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the USSR, and its director Avraham Shifrin, Schlossberg was able to follow closely the revelations about KAL 007, its landing and the survival of those aboard. The flow of this information began with the arrival in Israel of former Soviet military personnel, newly become citizens of Israel. It continued through the work of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations under the direction of ranking Minority Member, Senator Jesse Helms who pressured (successfully) Boris Yeltsin to release to the International Civil Aviation Organization, KAL 007’s “Black Boxes.”

Mr. Schlossberg is the International Director of the International Committee for the Rescue of KAL 007 Survivors, Inc. [http://www.rescue007.org/]

He was educated at Brooklyn College receiving the Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy in 1961, and at New York University receiving the Master’s Degree in Near Eastern Studies in 1969. He has taught at the University level in the fields of Near Eastern Language (Hebrew and Aramaic) and Literature as well as in the areas of Old and New Testaments at Sarah Lawrence and C.W. Post Colleges in New York, and at the Adult Education level with the Scarsdale (N.Y.) Adult Education program. Mr. Schlossberg has also taught at Israel College of the Bible and the Hebrew University, both in Jerusalem, Israel, and at Tel-Aviv University, in Tel-Aviv - in Israel.

==About my family and the connection to [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]]==
http://www.rescue007.org/alfredo_cruz.htm

==About my book==
[http://www.rescue007.org/book.htm] Rescue 007: The Untold Story of KAL 007 and its Survivors

http://www.rescue007.org/book.htm

Syro Chaldean Church of North America

2016-09-23T15:25:51Z

BertSchlossberg: Created page with "(See Aramaic Church) The Syro-Chaldean Church of North America, known for a short time as the Evangelical Apostolic Church of North America (Syro-Chaldean,is a small com..."

(See [[Aramaic Church]])

The Syro-Chaldean Church of North America, known for a short time as the Evangelical Apostolic Church of North America (Syro-Chaldean,is a small communion of congregations in New York, Connecticut, and South Carolina, that came from a mission movement of the Syro-Chaldean Church in India in the late 1800s. Though not a part of [[Messianic Judaism]], the Church takes great interest in both the "Hebrew roots" movement and its own Semitic heritage. In the late 1800s, the Indian Church sent out missions to the north of India, in Hindu areas, and a mission to England - to be somewhat of a bridge church; not a Roman Catholic nor a Protestant church, but a reconciliation of the two by centering on the ancient apostolic and evangelical faith at once. This Church in England spread to Canada and then the U.S. east coast. Though the church is strongly evangelical and biblically oriented, it retains its understanding of being an apostolic body in succession from the Apostle Thomas and its understanding of its call to be a sacramental body of reconciliation. The following is from its self-description from its website:

"We are a community of believers in Jesus Christ. We are one part of His universal (catholic) Church. We are a family of congregations known as the Evangelical Apostolic Church of North America (EAC).

Its roots are in the ancient Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East in the Middle East and India. We trace our family line ([[Apostolic succession]]) back to Christ’s Apostles through this church. In 1902, the Metropolitan of India had consecrated a British priest to be a missionary bishop from the Church of the East to the West. Given the episcopal name of Mar Jacobus, the Rev. Ulric Vernon Herford was made Bishop of Mercia and Middlesex, England. He then consecrated successors and the line was brought to the United States in the 1960s.

The EAC in the United States began from a home prayer group in Scarsdale, New York. This prayer group became the Congregation of the Messiah and its first pastor, Bertram Schlossberg [[User:BertSchlossberg]], was ordained to the priesthood in the line of the Church of the East in 1973. In 1976, the Church was incorporated under the name of the Syro-Chaldean Church of North America. The name was changed in 1992.

The congregations or parishes are organized into dioceses, each of which is overseen by a senior pastor or bishop. Each congregation is cared for by ordained priests or the bishop who serve as local pastors.

The local congregations are in New York, Connecticut, and south Carolian, with clergy involved in mission work elsewhere.

The Syro-Chaldean Church of North America's basic beliefs are those of the ancient Church as summarized in the Nicene Creed, also called the Symbol of Faith.

The church believes strongly in God’s call to repentance and salvation, to love and service, to worship and prayer. The church believes that all men and women suffer from bondage (addiction, if you will) to self-destructive and society-destroying sin, that this sin separates us from God, Himself, and all the fullness of joy that He intends for each one of us.

The Syro-Chaldean Church believes that Jesus Christ, out of His great love for us, came into our world and took to Himself all our hurts, sins, guilt and shame. He died to pay the price for all this and to set us free. He then rose again from death enabling us to share in His victory over the grave and restoring our relationship to God. “In Him, we live and move and have our being.” [Acts 17:28]

As people repent of all their sins, all that for which He died, and acknowledge that He is the supreme authority in our lives, we receive the salvation that He has bought for us. He then, as we ask, gives to us a new life powered by His Holy Spirit, a life filled with joy, characterized by love and service. In response, people worship with hearts filled with gratitude and, using the power and the gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit, people do the mighty works of God.

Believers live out our Spirit-powered lives within the community of faith on location in our parishes. They are joined to Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church through baptism and in sharing His Body and Blood in our Communion, the Eucharist.

The church sees itself and operates more as a community than an organization. It cares for its members at the same time as promotes the responsibility of its members to be caring for themselves and others. The church understands that rectification according the desiring of Christ is part of belief in Him. This also involves involvement in the society around us. Aspects of this is opposition to abortion, and alertness to the dangers that attack our nation, the United States of America, and the fabric of our families. Due to the church's origins, Biblical understandings and perspectives, and to the particular and clear leading of the Lord to the Church, the present nation of Israel, with its ingathering of the Exiles, is seen as fulfillment of the intentions of God, and to a future yet to unfold.

The present Metropolitan Bishop of the Church is Mar Uzziah bar Evyon [[User:BertSchlossberg]] . Relocated from Israel, he now resides in Florida, U.S.A.

==See also==

*[[Eucharist]]
*[[Aramaic]]
*[[Adiabene]]
*[[God on earth, the original!: an essay]]
*[[The Sign of the Cross: of Jewish Origin]]
*[[Aramaic Church]]
*[[The Lord's Prayer]] for the Aramaic Version
*[[Inspiration of Holy Scripture: An Eastern Christian and Jewish Perspective]]
*[[Gospel reading in the Church: the Turgama]]
*[[Anti Abortion activism: a personal essay]]
*[[Jewish Biblical way of interpretation: a solution for New Testament understanding]]
*[[Essay: Christians and the Law of Moses]]
*[[Christmas in the Holy Land: an essay]]
*[[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]
*[[Essay: The superiority of the King James Bible: Looking through!]]

==External links==
*[http://www.eacna.org/ The website of the Evangelical Apostolic Church of North America]
*[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/973487.html The present day messianic movement among the extensive tribe of north east India, recently granted eligibility by the State of Israel as one of the 10 lost tribes to immigrate to Israel]

[[Category:Churches]]

Evangelical Apostolic Church of North America (Syro-Chaldean)

2016-09-23T15:20:13Z

BertSchlossberg:

Essay:The Sign of the Cross: of Jewish Origin

2016-04-29T01:50:08Z

BertSchlossberg:

An Essay

I see the New Testament as intensly Jewish. But outside of the New Testament, is there anything else that is intensely Jewish that speaks of Jesus? Yes there is, and I will tell you of it. Let's take for instance the Cross. Readers of the New Testament will remember that Paul, who called himself, and rightly, an Israelite, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharasee, said of the cross, " I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live", and, "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." And Jesus Himself said, refering to the cross,,"If I am lifted up, I will draw all men to Me." Well, this is in the New Testament. Where is the community of Jews outside of the New Testament, yet in the New Testament days, who speak of Jesus, who speak of the cross?

Well, before there were the Dead Sea Scrolls to tell us what 1st century thought could be like, what first century Aramaic could be like, scholars, ever since the discovery in 1909 of this "Jewish" literature in Aramaic (Syriac), said something like, Yes, this is Jewish, but it's from the 2nd or 3rd century AD, written by Christians who were "Judaizing", that is, making it as if they, too, were "original" Jews or trying to bring back Judaism into the Church. But then, as years went on, other scholars, who could read the orginal and compare with the new discoveries, said, "No. this is no later than the first century - and is even earlier than some parts of the New Testament, and was written by Jews who believed in Jesus, who lived in a heavily Jewish area, just outside Palestine (Israel). Among these scholars are two important ones, J.H. Charlesworth, and Samuel Hugh Moffett of Princeton University.

So, what do they say about the "Odes"- Hymns? That come from this Jewish "Christian" community.

Firstly, this community of Jewish believers was so early that writings show an even earlier stage than some of the New Testament writings. In the latter writings, yes, there were still a lot of Jews in the "church" but most members were gentiles, who, suprisingly, believers in Jesus the Jewish Messiah. The New Testament tells these gentile believers, please, respect your Jewish brothers and sisters in your midst. They were there before you in the faith of the Lord. You gentiles are only recent "grafts" into the seed of Abraham. But these Odes are so early that the opposite situation was existing. The community of Jesus was almost totally Jewish and gentiles were starting to come in as believers, and so the Jewish believers had to be told, please, do not dishonor these gentiles who are now coming into your midst. do not despise them. Who told them that? Well it was Jesus Himself. That is right in the middle of Ode 10, which lthe community chanted together, Jesus speaks to them, sort of like the Prophets of old, when the Lord suddenly speaks through the words of the prophet, and Jesus says, "The Gentiles who were dispersed are now gathered together. But I am not defiled in my loving them, because they praised Me in high places" *. And so, we understand, don't you do the same!

And so, we understand, they went out as a community to the field to pray their Psalms (we have 42 of them) in Aramaic and pray to the Lord. J.H. Charlsworth calls these psalms the worlds first Christian hymnbook. And they did something that the ancient Jewish world and the world of the Tanakh often did. They didn't just think things, and say things, but they acted them out, or made physical gestures that made the point, or helped released their heart into what they were mouthing - just like today, Jews not only say the Shema, and think and say the psalms or other portions of the Tanakh, but also kiss the scrolls as they are passed or walked around, kiss and touch their fingertips and then the "Mezuzahs" on the doorposts of their houses, and many other wonderful things of doing, to demonstrate - like celebration of the Passover Seder.

And so they went out into the field, at the start of the day, and they began to pray, and as they did, they did something else. They stood and streched out their arms, and looked out to heaven and prayed out in wonderful Aramaic their psalm 42 and said what they were doing, as they made thus the sign of the cross:

"I have extended my hands, and approached my Lord,

For the expansion of my hands is His sign.

And my extension, is the common cross,

That was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One."

So, if you are Jewish and feel like making the sign of the cross, go ahead. It is as Jewish as Matzah ball soup or Gefilte fish. And if you are not Jewish and you believe in Jesus, remember, He is the Jewish Messiah, as well as the Savior of the World.

*Note: Even today, once the Syriac script is put into the Hebrew characters, Hebrew speakers can make out some or most of the Ancient Aramaic prayer from this Jewish Christian community

**Note: Where this Jewish Christian community of Jews lived was either Edessa (Urhai), the capital of the ancient kingdom of Osrhoene, or Arbela (Arba'a Ilu - the four gods, but now the Iraqi city of Irbil), the capital of [[Adiabene]] (Syriac: ܚܕܝܐܒ‎, Ḥaḏy’aḇ or Ḥḏay’aḇ). Adiabene was the very last province of the ancient and much feared Assyrian Empire (Jonah was sent by God to Assyrian capital of Nineveh) . In the first century, the queen of Adiabene, Helene, became Jewish with her son, the prince Izetes, and many of her nobles. According to the 1st century Jewish general and historian, Josephus, Adiabene was the only country to send in fighters to fight alongside the Palestinian Jews in their revolt against the Romans in the first century. This queen of Adiabene was much honored by the Jews because of this and her charitable works during the same famine that Paul writes about in the New Testament. Her many chambered tomb, once thought to be the burial place of the Kings of Israel, is on Salaheddin street in East Jerusalem. The Israeli archaeologist, Michael Avi Yona, who designed the model of 1st century Jerusalem now found in the Israel Museum has accorded a full half of the 1st century City of Zion to her palace complex. Adiabene itself, having become partly Jewish, due to the evangelization of Addai (Thaddeus) from Caesarea Phillippi in the Galilee, became the home of the Aramaic Jewish Christians (as well as the probable home of the Aramaic/Syriac version of the Old and New Testaments, the Peshitta) and the sending mission station for the Aramaic missions to Persia, Afghanistan, possibly India, and China, the missions of the "Church of the East". Adiabene, the center for the earliest bishops of the Aramaic Church of the East is considered by that Church to have been initially evangelized and/or brought into the "Apostolic" sphere by one of the seventy Adai (Thaddeus), who had been sent to nearby Edessa by the Apostle Thomas who himself would go on to India to found the Church in the southern Kerala region. While in Edessa, Adai sent his disciple, Mari, like himself one of the seventy, to Persia. Mari is considered as the founder of the Persian Church. These three, then - the Apostle Thomas, Addai, and Mari (along with another, possibly not historical, evangelizing member of the Seventy by the name of Aggai) are considered by the Church of the East, if not strictly the founders, then the "continuers" of the Jewish Apostolic community of believers in Jesus in the spread of the [[Aramaic Church]] from Jerusalem to the Far East. In the early 4th century, the bishop of Adiabene consecrated a bishop, Papa bar Gagai, for the southern portion of Mesopotamia, for the city of Seleucia-Ctesipon, and from that time, the centrality for the Aramaic church shifted from the northern center of Adiabene with its capital city of Arbela, to the southern center of Seleucia-Ctesipon (near Babylon).

It is thought that the reason that Jewish Christianity prevailed in the Aramaic speaking east while it did not in the Greek west is related to these facts. Christianity until the 4th century was an illicit and often persecuted by the pagan Roman Empire, while the enemy of the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire of Aramaic speaking lands, though also pagan, were more tolerant of their minorities. After the destructions of Jerusalem and prohibitions against Judaism of the two rebellions of the Jews agains the Romans - 66 AD and 135 AD - many Jews fled Palestine, and fled, not west to Roman lands, but to the East of Jerusalem to the Aramaic speaking Parthian Empire. Thus the Jewish influence in the Kingdom of Adiabene. Among the Jewish stream into the Parthian Kingdom, were also the Jewish Christians. Thus, though the early Church of the East engaged in occasional disputes with other Jews about the identity of the Messiah, the disputes were not vitriolic, and the Church of the East itself retained its Jewish roots and coloration. That is why the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Peshita) retains some of the same readings as Jewish interpretive material commonly known by the term Agaddic. Of all the Christian Eucharistic liturgies, the Aramaic one used by the Church of the East, now known as the Korbana of Mar Addai and Mari, retains the most Jewish elements in its prayers. The Jewish orientation of the early Church of the East can also be shown in its self understanding as to its founding and early leadership under its bishops. Aside from its understanding that its earliest founders were Jewish apostles and their disciples (Thomas, Addai-Thaddeus, Mari, Aggai-Haggai), three bishops directing the church are also considered to be both Jewish and, what is more, in the blood line of the Messiah Himself (Abris = "Ivri = Hebrew", a relative of Jesus' mother Mary, Avraham, a relative of James, and Yaakob, a relative of Joseph). This physical descent from the family of Jesus, perpetuating the seed and dynasty of David in the Churches leadership, is startling different than the outworkings of the "Gentile Church" within the Roman Empire. As the Church of the East Mission spread to India, it also spread the language of its homeland -[[Aramaic]], the language of Jesus and the language of the Jewish Talmud (Gemara) which developed in Babylon. This resulted in the startling phenomenon of the Christians of South India (Kerala), the so-called St. Thomas Christians, though speaking in their native Indian dialect, pray in the language of Aramaic, and the language akin, though not identical, to that of the Jewish Talmud. The language of the Aramaic Christians in particular, also at the core Aramaic, has come to be called Syriac, due to the nomenclature of the area of origin. When the Church of the East in India received an influx of new people from Mesopotamia in the 5th and 6th century, the Indian Church of the East came to be popularly known as the Syro-Chaldean Church, that is; the Church of the People from Syria and Chaldea. Abraham, was from Ur of the Chaldeas. Toward the end of the nineteenth century - beginning of the twentieth, the Syro-Chaldean Church in India, launched two missions. One was to the north of India among the Hindus. The other was to the West, through England and then the United States. That latter mission, had as its purpose the bringing of the Aramaic way as a sort of bridge church, neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant, but by being what it was to the core, a third way of approach - Apostolic, Catholic/Sacramental, and Evangelical/Biblical. The daughter of that western movement of the Aramaic Indian church, the [[Syro-Chaldean Church of North America]], is also charismatic.

==See Also==
*[[Aramaic Church]]
*[[Adiabene]]
*[[Syro-Chaldean Church of North America]]
*[[First Century Aramaic Jewish Christian Gospel and poetry]]
*[[Aramaic Judaism, Jewish Aramaic Christianity, and John 1:1]]
*[[Evangelical Apostolic Church of North America (Syro-Chaldean)]]

==External Links==
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/jesus-through-fabric-of-our-lives.html Jesus through the Fabric of our Lives]

[[Category:Essays]]

Aramaic Church

2016-03-26T21:54:37Z

BertSchlossberg:

==The Aramaic Church==

===Origin and Early Mission to the East===

As [[Paul]] and the other [[Apostles]] and missionaries took the message of [[Jesus Christ]] to the West, to the synagogues first, and then to [[Greek]] culture and language peoples of the [[Roman]] Empire, The Apostle Thomas and his followers took the message to the East, to the Aramaic language and varied cultured peoples of the Parthian (Persian) Empire. These two Empires were at war with each other which tended to cause the two Christian communities to develop independently of each other - the Western Church to eventually be alligned with the Roman Empire, the Eastern to remain always subservient to the Persian Empire. The major Western border Kingdom was Osrhoene with its capital city Edessa. 400 miles to the east of Edessa was the small Persian Kingdom of Adiabene with its capital city of Arbela (modern Irbil on the Tigris river in Iraq). Adiabene was the last existing province of the hostile-to-Israel Assyrian empire.

====The Peshitta====
In 36 A.D., both the Queen of Adiabene, known in Greek as Queen Helena (not the mother of Constantine), and her son King Ezad were converted to Judaism. Queen Helena was buried in the grand tomb complex in East Jerusalem - formally thought to be the Tomb of the Kings. Her palace complex takes up the full half of the Hill of the City of David as reconstructered by Israeli archaeologist, Mikhael Avi-Yonah (reconstruction now in the Israel Museum, [[Jerusalem]]). Queen Helena's conversion, as wiell as others of the Kingdom, furthered the already developing translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in her Kingdom's language -Aramaic. That developing (on up to 5th Cent. redactions)
translation came to be known as the Peshitta - meaning simple or common speech, in much the same way as the Hebrew Bible would be translated into Latin by Jerome, with extensive help form a Rabbi,and the resultant translation would be called the Vulgate - meaning simple or common speech. The Peshitta, retaining elements of the then Jewish "targumic" (interpretive) and other Jewish understandings of the Hebrew Bible, is primarily based on the Pre-Masoretic Hebrew Scriptures - though certain books, such as the Prophet Isaiah,are translations primarily from the Septuagint (The Peshitta Book of Proverbs, however, and the Targum of Proverbs are almost identical). (A History of Christianity in Asia, Volume l, Samuel Hugh Moffett,orbis, 1998, pg. 70). See [[Targum]] for the early centuries Rabbinic interpretive literature and its application to both Old and New Testament studies. (The development of the Old Testament Peshitta translation is held by some to have taken place alternatively in Adiabene's nearby neighbor Edessa).

As Thomas and his followers went to India, others (possibly Adai (Thaddeus), the Galilean from Caesarea Phillipi among them) arrived in Adiabene, and having gone (probaly to the synagogues first, as did the Apostle Paul), they found already, if not a populous, then an elite governmental element, conversant with the biblical message in Aramaic. From these people, hearing the preaching of the messengers from Israel ,came believers in Jesus Christ, and soon after, came the translation of the Greek New Testament Scriptures into Aramaic, and so the Peshitta was added to by inclusion of the New Testament in Aramaic. Unlike the Greek canon of the New Testament Scriptures, the Peshitta originally did not include the following books: the Second Epistle of Peter, the Second Epistle of John, the Third Epistle of John, the Epistle of Jude and the Book of Revelation. But these books translated into the Syriac (as Christian Aramaic is known) are part of the Peshitta now and used by the Aramaic based churches, primarily in India and the Middle East - the Syrian Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East (Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East), the Indian [[Orthodox]] Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Syro-Malabar Church and the Syro-Malankara [[Catholic]] Church.

Adiabene and its surroundings then became the sending center for a mission to the East that would eventually, taking advantage of the newly rediscovered monsoon winds blowing for months across the Arabian sea, making it possible for ships to no longer hug the coasts, and taking advantage of the "Silk Road" all the way from Antioch in Syria to China, take the message of Jesus Christ to India (bringing about the Aramaic (Syriac) language churches of Kerala) and even to [[China]] itself.

===The Worship of the Early Aramaic Church===

What is known about the life and worship of the earliest Aramaic community, is derived from an Aramaic (Syriac) document, once thought to be from a later "Judaizing" element within the Church, but now known, by comparison with linguistic affinities to the Dead Sea Scrolls in conjunction with the Gospel of John, to come from the first century, from the time that the church was still Jewish. This document is the "Odes of Solomon".

The Odes have been called the "earliest Christian hymnbook" (The Odes of Solomon: The Syriac texts Edited with Translation and Notes, J. H. Charlesworth, Oxford, Clarendon, 1973). They are 42 biblical style psalms, each psalm usually in three sections - a first narrative style about the Lord, a middle section in which, often, Jesus speaks in the first person, and a last section offering a doxology of praise.

The Odes are contemporaneous with some of literature of the New Testament, but exhibiting an earlier phase of development of the Church. In the New Testament (Romans), Gentile Christians are exhorted to be tolerant, less rejecting and caring for the "Old People of God" and, by implication, the remaining early Jewish believers in their midst (now a minority). Here in the Odes of Solomon, Jewish believers (gently rebuked) are urged to be tolerant and caring for the [[Gentiles]] who had come to faith and were now coming into their midst. "And the Gentiles, who had been dispersed, were gathered together; But I [Jesus speaking] was not defiled by My love (for them); Because they had praised Me in High Places. (Odes Sol. 10:5). They went out early each morning before work and prayed together with arms outsteched, the fashion of worship of a slightly later gentile prayer position, considering this outstretching the "sign of the cross" - "I extended my hands and approached my Lord, For the expansion of my hands is His sign, And my extension is the common cross; That was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One." (A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. l., Samuel Hugh Moffett, Orbis,{Odes Sol.42:1,2,}, 1998, pg.52). The Odes, have either a joining of Biblical passages, or the thought of such passages prior to their writing. An example is Ode 41:12-15 bringing together the prologue of the Gospel of John and Philippians 2. "His word is with us on the way; The Saviour who gives life and does not reject (us); The Man who humbled Himself, but was exalted because of His own Righteousness...;And Light dawned from the Word, that was before time in Him."

There is little to be said in the Odes about the organization of this early Aramaic Church. The "Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons" of the roughly contemporaneous [[New Testament]] are not mentioned, but that may not mean much. As Samuel Moffett wrote about this matter, "[hymns]are rarely required to sing of bureaucracies". The closest to a list of ministries is from Ode 12:4 - "...the interpreters of His beauty, and the narrators of His Glory, and the confessors of His purpose, and the preachers of His mind, and the teachers of His works."

==The Aramaic church of today==

The [[Church of the East]], sometimes known as the [[Nestorian]] Church or sometimes as the Assyrian Church uses the Aramaic Language in their liturgy [http://www.cired.org/]. This is true also of the Church of the East in India, also known as the Syro-Chaldean Church, though its people speak an Indian dialect and not Aramaic. The Aramaic translation of the Bible for this Church is the Peshitta, the earliest of the translations for both the Old and New Testament after the Greek Septuaginta of the Hebrew original for the Old and after the Greek original for the New. Jesus spoke Aramaic as well as Mishnaic (1st century common) Hebrew and some of his utterances in the Greek New Testament are transliterations of the Aramaic. Examples of these are Talitha Kum(i)-"Get up ,Young girl!", Eloi, Eloi, lama Shvaktani- My God, My God, why have you left Me." In the book of Revelation of the New Testament, the word "Maranatha" appears, as it does in the liturgies of the early church. Maranatha means either (according to its accent), "The Lord has come" or "O Lord, come!"

Church of the East members from the "Assyrian" group still speaking Aramaic, are dispersed to several countries since their World War l persecution and flight from Turkey - along with the Armenians. They are settled today in various countries and in the United States are found in numbers in Flint Michigan, Modesto California, and Yonkers New York.

A few modern Churches such as the [[Syro-Chaldean Church of North America]], now known as the [[Evangelical Apostolic Church of North America (Syro-Chaldean)]] derive their Apostolicity and general theological outlook from the Aramaic Church of the East though their membership is "Anerican" rather than ethnically Assyrian [http://www.eacna.org/].

The Chaldean Catholic Church represents a part of the Church of the East which has recognized the Pope and the jurisdiction of the Western Catholio Church. This Church also uses the Aramaic language in their liturgy. These are the churches, some under the Pope and some independent (autocephalous -
"self heading") that use Aramaic as part of their liturgy nowadays - the Syrian Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East (Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East), the Indian Orthodox Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Syro-Malabar Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.

==See Also==
*[[Aramaic]]
*[[The Lord's Prayer]] for the Aramaic Version
*[[Targum]]
*[[Midrash]] for the same feature in later Jewish Literature as in the Odes of Solomon - God suddenly speaking through prophetically in the first person.
*[[Ichthys]]
*[[Sign of the Cross]]
*[[Adiabene]]
*[[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]
*[[The Sign of the Cross: of Jewish Origin]]
*[[God on earth, the original!: an essay]]
*[[Demetrius, Patriarch of Alexandria]]
*[[Evangelical Apostolic Church of North America (Syro-Chaldean)]]
*[[Gospel reading in the Church: the Turgama]]

[[category:churches]]

Adiabene

2016-03-26T21:52:29Z

BertSchlossberg:

'''Adiabene''' (Syriac: ܚܕܝܐܒ‎, Ḥaḏy’aḇ or Ḥḏay’aḇ) was the last province of the Assyrian Empire. It was still existing in the first century A.D. It's capital was Arbel (modern "Irbil" in Iraq). In 70 A.D. Its queen Helena, who had converted to Judaism with her son Izetas and leading people of the government, was buried in Jerusalem. Her magnificent tomb complex on Salah Iddin street in East Jerusalem was for long considered the Tomb of the Kings of Israel, until the right identification of "City of David" was made elsewhere (the hill on which is the Arab village of Silwan outside the Dung Gate). The Aramaic speaking province of Adiabene with its capital of Arbel (modern Irbil in Iraq) became the "sending station" of the Aramaic Church eastward eventually to reach southern India, where the "St. Thomas" Christians, yet using Aramaic as their liturgical language are still prominent today, and China with the message of Jesus Christ. Arbel and Adiabene of the Aramaic language (in the main) Parthian empire vie with Edessa capital of Osrhoene, the satellite kingdom within the Roman Empire sphere (but also primarily Aramaic in language) as the place in which the Aramaic Peshitta version of the Bible was begun and grew. The Jewish general and historian of the first century, Josephus, records that Adiabene was the only foreign country to send contingents to fight at the side of the Jews against the occupying Roman legions during the Jewish revolt of 66 AD. Among the first bishops of the Aramaic Church of the East, starting with Mar Pekidah, ordained by the Galilean Jewish Christian frpm Caesarea Phillipi, Addai, one of the Seventy (perhaps the same as Thaddeus, one of the Twelve), were the bishops of Adiabene. Adiabene together with nearby Edessa exhibit the early Church of the East's understanding that the Aramaic church was the continuation of the earliest Jewish Christianity after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by the Romans. This Jewish orientation of the early Church of the East can also be shown in its self understanding as to its founding and early leadership under its bishops. Aside from its understanding that its earliest founders were Jewish apostles and their disciples (Thomas, Addai-Thaddeus, Mari, Aggai-Haggai), three next bishops directing the church are also considered to be both Jewish and, what is more, in the blood line of the Messiah Himself (Abris = "Ivri = Hebrew", a relative of Jesus' mother Mary, Avraham, a relative of James, and Yaakob, a relative of Joseph). This physical descent from the family of Jesus, perpetuating the seed and dynasty of David in the Church's leadership, is startling different than the outworkings of the "Gentile Church" within the Roman Empire.

The Orthodox Jewish Aramaic scholar Jacob Neusner contends that if the Palestinian Jews had won the war against Rome, the newly converted to Judaism Adiabenian dynasty whould have become a strong candidate for inheriting the Jewish throne in Jerusalem. This enlightens the matrix of the understanding of the Church of the East as perpetuating the dynasty of David in the leadership of the Church. An example of the "easy" self identification of the Aramaic Church with the continuation of physical Israel, is evident in the "Chronicles of Arbela"* with its natural allusion to earthly Israel and its events and its phrasing. Speaking of the events of the episcopacy of Isaac (the bishop's name itself bespeaks continuity with Israel), we find in a description of an attack on a believing in Jesus high commander and ruler, "but God, who is good to Israel and to the simple of heart, did not allow the wicked arrows which they fixed upon the the string to harm...", "...and he fell, after delivering himself, like Judas Maccabeus, a sacrifice to the Lord for the salvation of his people.", and, describing his death, ".. they wept for him like David for Jonathan: 'How the mighty have fallen in battle. O Jonathan, upon your high places are the slain. I am distressed about you, O my brother Jonathan. You were greatly beloved by me'" In the understanding of the Adiabenian Christian thought as well as all the earliest Aramaic Church, there does not seem to be a distinct line between Physical Israel and the Church, between physical Israel and spiritual Israel. Peoplehood carries on. Bishop (Mar) Bawai Soro contends the reason that Jews and then Jewish Christians streamed into the Parthian Aramaic kingdoms and Empire after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was that it was evident that to have fled westward into Roman controlled territories would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The Parthian empire, until the Sassanids, and Babylon (which indeed became built up as ''the'' Jewish center) was more tolerant that persecuting Rome.

It is clear that the term, signifying the dynasty of David ("House of David") - Isaiah 7:13, and the rule of the this dynasty of David ("Throne of David") - Isaiah 9:7, perhaps had a concrete application to the times they were spoken and written, but also had a fulfillment for the future - to Messianic times. That is why Scripture speaks of David in present and future tense terms though he had long since died Ezekiel 37:24. And it is also clear that Jesus being the Son of David and the inheritor of David's throne, is an understanding prominent in both the Gospels and the letters of the New Testament. But these lively themes both in the beginning Church of the East in Adiabene, and in the Adiabene aristocracy and its relationship to Jerusalem, even to the extent that Jacob Neusner suggests (Adiabene ascending the throne of Jerusalem if the Jews - and they- would have won in the war against Rome) gives an authenticity and realism to these otherwise "religious" concepts.

* The Chronicles, written or compiled in Syriac by Meshiha zekha ("Victory of the Messiah") to Pinkhas is from the 6th century. This is very illuminative showing that the Jewish orientation of the Church was still a fact after 500 years. Though it was written down hundreds of years after the event, it is accurate in much of the earlier centuries events and background. An example, is portaying, ''contrary to the times of its composition'', the ordained clergy orders of Adiabene and the early Church of the East as bishops and deacons, rather than bishops, presbyters and deacons (presumably, the "elders" as a distinct order from the "overseers" was not well defined). This is like the Epistle to the Philippians - "Paul...to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons."

==See also==
*[[Aramaic Church]]
*[[Aramaic]]
*[[Sign of the Cross]]
*[[The Sign of the Cross: of Jewish Origin]]
*[[House of David]]

[[Category:Judaism]]
[[Category:Ancient History]]

Israel Defense Forces

2013-05-14T21:50:05Z

BertSchlossberg: /* Links */

[[Image:IDFlogo.jpg|right|thumb|IDF Logo]]

The '''Israel Defense Forces''' (IDF) ([[Hebrew]]: צבא ההגנה לישראל) is the name of the [[Israel|Israeli]] military, including the Israeli Army, Air Force and Sea Corps.

Their general mission is to "To defend the existence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state of Israel. To protect the inhabitants of Israel and to combat all forms of terrorism which threaten the daily life." The quality of the IDF has become a legend as a result of many specific missions such as the 1976 [[Entebbe rescue]], the 1973 [[Operation Spring of Youth]] and the 1967 [[Six-Day War]], in which Israel fought off for the second time the armies of all four of its immediate neighbors -- [[Egypt]], [[Jordan]], [[Syria]], and [[Lebanon]] -- as well as that of [[Iraq]] and token commitments from other Arab states. Even leaving aside its [[nuclear weapons]], the exact number and [[Weapon yield|yield]] of which are unknown, Israel is definitely the world's best armed small country (its air force would give it an edge were it somehow to fight [[North Korea]]) and is orders of magnitude more capable in a military sense than any of its neighbors.

All citizens of Israel, male and female, except for the ultra-[[Orthodox]] and [[Muslim]] are obligated to serve a minimum of two years on [[active duty]] in the IDF upon graduating from high school and a number of years thereafter as [[reservists]], meaning that Israel probably has the world's most thorough system of [[conscription]]. Career soldiers have gone on to lead the country more frequently than in the [[United States]], such as the notable examples of [[Yitzhak Rabin]], [[Ehud Barak]] and [[Ariel Sharon]].

==Links==
*[http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/homepage.asp?clr=1&sl=EN&id=-8888&force=1 Official Site in English]
*[http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/ Official Site in Hebrew]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Orde Wingate and the Night Raiders: Give 'em He...Heaven!]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ The courage of sticking to it: On the march with the IDF]

==See also==
*[[Sar-El]]
==Further reading==
* Tucker, Spencer C., ed. ''The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict A Political, Social, and Military History'' (4 vol. 2008)

[[Category:Israel]]
[[Category:Israeli Wars]]
[[Category:Military]]

Israel

2013-05-14T21:42:49Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

{{Country
|name =מדינת ישראל ''Medīnat Yisrā'el''
|map =Israel shaded.jpg
|flag =Flag of Israel.png
|arms =Arms of Israel.png
|capital =Jerusalem
|capital-raw =
|government =Parliamentary Democracy
|government-raw =
|language =Hebrew
|language2 =Arabic
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|governor general=
|governor general-raw=
|president =Shimon Peres
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Benjamin Netanyahu
|pm-raw =
|chairman =
|general secretary=
|governor =
|governor-raw =
|premier =
|premier-raw =
|area =8,019 / 8,522 sq mi
|pop =7,184,000
|pop-basis =2007
|gdp =$170.3 billion
|gdp-year =2006
|gdp-pc =$31,767
|currency =Shekel
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}}
The '''State of Israel''' ([[Hebrew]]: '''מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל''', ''Medinat Yisra'el'' from ''' יִשְׂרָאֵל''' ''Yisra'el'', "Struggled with God") is a nation located in the [[Middle East]]. It is the world's only Jewish state, having emerged from [[Zionism]] in Europe and the U.S. in the 1880s-1940s. It grants citizenship to anybody considered to be [[Jewish]]. It also contains Arab Muslim and Arab Christian minorities who are remnants of the pre-1948 Arab majority, along with a small [[Druze]] community. It is the location of most Biblical events.

==Geography==
[[File:Haifa Israel.JPG|thumb|420px|center|Haifa.]]
Israel occupies an area along the eastern Mediterranean Sea, with [[Jordan]] and [[Syria]] to the east; [[Lebanon]] on the north; and [[Egypt]] to the south. The territories of the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip]] are currently controlled by Israel, but disputed.

The terrain varies from a temperate, coastal climate to desert conditions. Israel shares with Jordan the shoreline of the [[Dead Sea]], at 1,378 feet below sea level the lowest point on earth.

==People==
Of the approximately 6.43 million Israelis in 2007, about 76% were counted as Jewish, though some of those are not considered Jewish under [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jewish]] law. Since 1989, nearly a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union have arrived in Israel, making this the largest wave of immigration since independence. In addition, an estimated 105,000 members of the [[Ethiopian]] Jewish community have immigrated to Israel, 14,000 of them during the dramatic May 1991 Operation Solomon airlift. 32.9% of Israelis were born outside of Israel.

The three broad Jewish groupings are the Ashkenazim, or Jews who trace their ancestry to [[Central Europe]]; the Sephardim, who trace their origin to [[Spain]], [[Portugal]], southern Europe, and North Africa; and Eastern or Oriental Jews, who descend from ancient communities in Islamic lands. Of the non-Jewish population, about 68% are Muslims, about 9% are Christian, and about 7% are Druze.
[[File:People at a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.jpg|thumb|280px|left|At a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.]]
Education is compulsory from age 6 to 16 and is free up to age 18. The school system is organized into kindergartens, 6-year primary schools, 3-year junior secondary schools, and 3-year senior secondary schools, after which a comprehensive examination is offered for university admissions. There are seven university-level institutions in Israel, a number of regional colleges, and an Open University program.

The majority of families in Israel - Jewish and Arab - send their children to segregated schools. This [[segregation]] poses a distinct problem, tending to promote rival viewpoints and attitudes that become ripe for exploitation by proponents of violence. Within Israel, the schools of the minority Arab population become incubators for resentment and hostility, while the schools of the majority Jewish population tend to reinforce a sense of insulation from the concerns of others. <ref>http://handinhandk12.org/</ref>

With a population drawn from more than 100 countries on 5 continents, Israeli society is rich in cultural diversity and artistic creativity. The arts are actively encouraged and supported by the government. ''The first Jewish artist on record was named Bezalel. He was an architect, sculptor and designer of holy garments. Mostly he was known for making the Tabernacle that contained the Ark of the Covenant.'' <ref> [http://www.jewish-art.org/ancient-jewish-art.html Ancient Jewish art]</ref> The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra performs throughout the country and frequently tours abroad. The Jerusalem Symphony and the New Israel Opera also tour frequently, as do other musical ensembles. Almost every municipality has a chamber orchestra or ensemble, many boasting the talents of gifted performers from the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Israel has several professional ballet and modern dance companies, and folk dancing, which draws upon the cultural heritage of many immigrant groups, continues to be very popular. There is great public interest in the theater; the repertoire covers the entire range of classical and contemporary drama in translation as well as plays by Israeli authors. Of the three major repertory companies, the most famous, Habimah, was founded in 1917.

Active artist colonies thrive in Safed, Jaffa, and Ein Hod, and Israeli painters and sculptors exhibit works worldwide. Israel boasts more than 120 museums, including the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls along with an extensive collection of regional archaeological artifacts, art, and Jewish religious and folk exhibits. Israelis are avid newspaper readers, with more than 90% of Israeli adults reading a newspaper at least once a week. Major daily papers are in Hebrew; others are in Arabic, English, French, Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Hungarian, and German.

==Government==
[[Image:Tst4436.jpg|right|thumb|250px|[[David Ben Gurion]], the First Prime Minister of Israel, publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948, [[Tel Aviv]], Israel, beneath a large [[portraits|portrait]] of Theodore Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism, in the old Tel Aviv Museum of Art building on Rotshild St.]]
Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a governmental system based on several basic laws enacted by its unicameral parliament, the Knesset. The president (chief of state) is elected by the Knesset for a 5-year term.

The prime minister (head of government) exercises executive power and has in the past been selected by the president as the party leader most able to form a government. Between May 1996 and March 2001, Israelis voted for the prime minister directly. (The legislation, which required the direct election of the prime minister, was rescinded by the Knesset in March 2001.) The members of the cabinet must be collectively approved by the Knesset.

The Knesset's 120 members are elected by secret ballot to 4-year terms, although the prime minister may decide to call for new elections before the end of the 4-year term. Voting is for party lists rather than for individual candidates, and the total number of seats assigned each party reflects that party's percentage of the vote. Successful Knesset candidates are drawn from the lists in order of party-assigned rank. Under the present electoral system, all members of the Knesset are elected at large.

The independent judicial system includes secular and religious courts. The courts' right of judicial review of the Knesset's legislation is limited. Judicial interpretation is restricted to problems of execution of laws and validity of subsidiary legislation. The highest court in Israel is the Supreme Court, whose judges are approved by the President.

Israel is divided into six districts, administration of which is coordinated by the Ministry of Interior. The Ministry of Defense is responsible for the administration of the occupied territories.

===Principal Government Officials===
*President--Shimon Peres (Szymon Persky)
*Prime Minister--Benjamin Netanyahu
*Foreign Minister--Avigdor Lieberman (Our Home Israel)
*Ambassador to the United States--Sallai Meridor
*Ambassador to the United Nations--Dan Gillerman

===Political Conditions===
[[File:Knesset Israel.jpg|right|300px|The Knesset, The House of Representatives.]]
From the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948 until the election of May 1977 Israel was ruled by successive coalition governments led by the Labor alignment or its constituent parties. From 1967-70 the coalition government included all of Israel's parties except the communist party. After the 1977 election the Likud bloc, then composed of Herut, the Liberals, and the smaller La'am Party, came to power forming a coalition with the National Religious Party, Agudat Israel, and others. As head of Likud, Menachem Begin became Prime Minister. The Likud retained power in the succeeding election in June 1981, and Begin remained Prime Minister. In the summer of 1983, Begin resigned and was succeeded by his Foreign Minister, Yitzhak Shamir.

After Prime Minister Shamir lost a Knesset vote of confidence early in 1984, new elections in July provided no clear winner, with both Labor and Likud considerably short of a Knesset majority and unable to form even narrow coalitions. After several weeks of difficult negotiations, they agreed on a government of national unity, including the rotation of the office of Prime Minister and the combined office of Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister midway through the government's 50-month term.

During the first 25 months of unity government rule, Labor's Shimon Peres served as Prime Minister, while Likud's Shamir held the posts of Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, until they switched positions in October 1986. In November 1988 elections, Likud edged Labor out by one seat but was unable to form a coalition, producing another national unity government in January 1989. Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister, and [[Shimon Peres]] became Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister. This government fell in March 1990, however, in a vote of no confidence precipitated by disagreement over the government's response to U.S. Secretary of State Baker's initiative in the peace process. Labor Party leader Peres was unable to attract sufficient support among the religious parties to form a government. Yitzhak Shamir then formed a Likud-led coalition government, including members from religious and right-wing parties.

Shamir's government took office in June 1990, and held power for 2 years. In the June 1992 national elections, the Labor Party reversed its electoral fortunes, taking 44 seats. Labor Party leader [[Yitzhak Rabin]] formed a coalition with [[Meretz]] (a leftist party) and Shas (an ultra-Orthodox religious party). The coalition included the support of two Arab-majority parties. Rabin became Prime Minister in July 1992, presiding over the signing of the Oslo accords with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]]. However, Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Jewish radical on November 4, 1995. Peres, then Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, once again became Prime Minister and immediately proceeded to carry forward the peace policies of the Rabin government and to implement Israel's Oslo commitments, including military redeployment in the West Bank and the holding of historic Palestinian elections on January 20, 1996.

Enjoying broad public support and anxious to secure his own mandate, Peres called for early elections after just 3 months in office. (They would have otherwise been held by the end of October 1996.) In late February and early March, a series of suicide bombing attacks by Palestinian terrorists took some 60 Israeli lives, seriously eroding public support for Peres and raising concerns about the peace process. Increased fighting in southern Lebanon, which also brought Katyusha rocket attacks against northern Israel, also raised tensions and weakened the government politically a month before the May 29 elections.
[[File:Ariel-sharon.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Ariel Sharon.]]
In those elections--the first direct election of a Prime Minister in Israeli history--Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu won by a narrow margin, having sharply criticized the government's peace policies for failing to protect Israeli security. Netanyahu subsequently formed a right-wing coalition government publicly committed to pursuing the peace process, but with an emphasis on security and reciprocity. In 1999, with a shrunken coalition and facing increasing difficulty passing legislation and defeating no-confidence motions, Netanyahu dissolved parliament and called for new elections. This time, the Labor candidate--Ehud Barak--was victorious. Barak formed a mixed coalition government of secular and religious parties, with Likud in the opposition. In May 2000, Barak fulfilled one of his major campaign promises by withdrawing Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon. However, by mid-autumn, with the breakdown of the Camp David talks and the worsening security situation caused by the new intifada, Barak's coalition was in jeopardy. In December, he resigned as Prime Minister, precipitating a new prime ministerial election.

In a special election on February 6, 2001, after a campaign stressing security and the maintenance of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, Likud leader [[Ariel Sharon]] defeated Barak by over 20 percentage points. As he had promised in his campaign, Sharon formed a broad unity government that included the Labor and Likud parties, the far-right parties, some smaller secular parties, and several religious parties. The unity government collapsed in late 2002, and new elections were held in January 2003. Sharon again won, and formed a new government consisting of his own Likud party, the right-wing National Religious Party and National Union party, and centrist Shinui.

The summer of 2004 saw renewed instability in the government, as disagreement over the Gaza disengagement plan resulted in Sharon's firing two ministers of the National Union Party and accepting the resignation of a third from the National Religious Party in order to secure cabinet approval of the plan (it was endorsed on June 6, 2004). Continuing divisions within the Likud on next steps then prompted Ariel Sharon to leave the party in November 2005 to form the Kadima ("Forward") party and call new elections for March 2006. However, Sharon was unexpectedly incapacitated in January 2006 due to a severe stroke and leadership of Kadima shifted to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who on March 28 led the party to 29 seats in the Knesset. Labor came in second with 19 seats, and Shas and Likud tied with 12. After intensive coalition negotiations, a new, Kadima-led government, with Labor as "senior partner", was sworn in on May 4, 2006.

===Foreign Relations===
In addition to seeking an end to hostilities with Arab forces, against which it has fought five wars since 1948, Israel has given high priority to gaining wide acceptance as a sovereign state with an important international role.
[[File:Leaders Orient Arab Israel.jpg|left|300px|November, 2010.]]
Before 1967, Israel had established diplomatic relations with a majority of the world's nations, except for the Arab states and most other Muslim countries. UN Security Council resolutions provided the basis for cease-fire and disengagement agreements concerning the Sinai and the Golan Heights between Israel, Egypt, and Syria and for promoting the Camp David accords and the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. The Soviet Union and the communist states of Central Europe (except Romania) broke diplomatic relations with Israel during the 1967 war, but those relations were restored by 1991.

The landmark October 1991 Madrid conference recognized the importance of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 in resolving regional disputes, and brought together for the first time Israel, the Palestinians, and the neighboring Arab countries, launching a series of direct bilateral and multilateral negotiations. These talks were designed to finally resolve outstanding security, border, and other issues between the parties while providing a basis for mutual cooperation on issues of general concern, including the status of refugees, arms control and regional security, water and environmental concerns, and economic development.

Today, Israel has diplomatic relations with 161 states. Following the signing of the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on September 13, 1993, Israel established or renewed diplomatic relations with 36 countries. Israel has full diplomatic relations with Egypt, Jordan, and Mauritania. In addition, on October 1, 1994, the Gulf States publicly announced their support for a review of the Arab boycott, in effect abolishing the secondary and tertiary boycotts against Israel.

Israel has diplomatic relations with nine non-Arab Muslim states and with 32 of the 43 Sub-Saharan states that are not members of the Arab League. Israel established relations with China and India in 1992 and with the Holy See in 1993.

===Relations with the United States===
[[File:Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu 2008.jpg|thumb|left|Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama in 2008.]]
[[Image:Mosque.jpg|right|thumb|250px|The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem]]
Commitment to Israel's security and well being has been a cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Middle East since Israel's founding in 1948, in which the United States played a key supporting role. Israel and the United States are bound closely by historic and cultural ties as well as by mutual interests. Continuing U.S. economic and security assistance to Israel acknowledges these ties and signals U.S. commitment. The broad issues of Arab-Israeli peace have been a major focus in the U.S.-Israeli relationship. U.S. efforts to reach a Middle East peace settlement are based on many critical security interests. The United State's strong national security interests in promoting regional security in the Middle East and curtailing acts of terrorism both in Israel and abroad are supported in part by UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. As one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, the United States also has a strong interest in promoting Israel's economic success.

On a bilateral level, relations between the United States and Israel are continually strengthening in every field. In addition to the Joint Political-Military Group described above, there are: bilateral science and technology efforts (including the Binational Science Foundation and the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Foundation); the U.S.-Israeli Education Foundation, which sponsors educational and cultural programs; the Joint Economic Development Group, which maintains a high-level dialogue on economic issues; the Joint Counterterrorism Group, designed to enhance cooperation in fighting terrorism; and a high-level Strategic Dialogue that meets biannually.

==Defense==
Israel's ground, air, and naval forces, known as the Israel Defense Force (IDF), fall under the command of a single general staff. Conscription is universal for Israeli men and women over the age of 18, although exemptions may be made on religious grounds. Druze, members of a small Islamic offshoot living in Israel's mountains, also serve in the IDF. [[Israeli Arabs]], with the exception of some [[Bedouins]], do not serve. During 1950-66, Israel spent an average of 9% of GDP on defense. Real defense expenditures increased dramatically after both the 1967 and 1973 wars. Military spending in 2005 totaled $9.45 billion, which is equivalent to 7.7% of GDP, and represents 16.3% of government expenditures. The United States provides approximately $2.4 billion per year in security assistance.

In 1983, the United States and Israel established the Joint Political Military Group, which meets twice a year. Both the U.S. and Israel participate in joint military planning and combined exercises, and have collaborated on military research and weapons development.

==Economy==
[[File:Israeli Tel Aviv.jpg|thumb|left|230px|Tel Aviv.]]
Israel has a diversified, technologically advanced economy with substantial but decreasing government ownership and a strong high-tech sector. The major industrial sectors include high-technology electronic and biomedical equipment, metal products, processed foods, chemicals, and transport equipment. Israel possesses a substantial service sector and is one of the world's centers for diamond cutting and polishing. It also is a world leader in software development and, prior to the violence that began in September 2000, was a major tourist destination.

Israel's strong commitment to economic development and its talented work force led to economic growth rates during the nation's first two decades that frequently exceeded 10% annually. The years after the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]] were a lost decade economically, as growth stalled and [[inflation]] reached triple-digit levels. The successful economic stabilization plan implemented in 1985 and the subsequent introduction of market-oriented structural reforms reinvigorated the economy and paved the way for rapid growth in the 1990s.

A wave of Jewish immigration beginning in 1989, predominantly from the countries of the former U.S.S.R., brought nearly a million new citizens to Israel. These new immigrants, many of them highly educated, now constitute some 13% of Israel's 6.7 million inhabitants. Their successful absorption into Israeli society and its labor force forms a remarkable chapter in Israeli history. The skills brought by the new immigrants and their added demand as consumers gave the Israeli economy a strong upward push and in the 1990s, they played a key role in the ongoing development of Israel's high-tech sector.
*GDP (2006 est.): $170.3 billion.
*Annual growth rate (2006): 4.8%.
*Per capita GDP (2006): $26,800.
*Currency: Shekel (4.13 shekels = 1 U.S. dollar; 2007 est.).
*Natural resources: [[Copper]], [[phosphate]], [[bromide]], [[potash]], [[clay]], [[sand]], [[sulfur]], [[bitumen]], [[manganese]].
*Agriculture: Products--citrus and other fruits, vegetables, beef, dairy, and poultry products.
*Industry: Types--high-technology projects (including aviation, communications, computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics, fiber optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, tobacco, caustic soda, cement, construction, plastics, chemical products, diamond cutting and polishing, metal products, textiles, and footwear.
*Trade: Exports (2006 est.)--$42.86 billion. Exports include polished diamonds, electronic communication, medical and scientific equipment, chemicals and chemical products, electronic components and computers, machinery and equipment, transport equipment, rubber, plastics, and textiles. Imports (excluding defense imports, 2006 est.)--$47.8 billion: raw materials, diamonds, energy ships and airplanes, machinery, equipment, land transportation equipment for investment, and consumer goods. Major partners--U.S., U.K., Germany; exports--U.S., Belgium, Hong Kong; imports--U.S., Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, U.K.

During the 1990s, progress in the Middle East peace process, beginning with the Madrid Conference of 1991, helped to reduce Israel's economic isolation from its neighbors and opened up new markets to Israeli exporters farther afield. The peace process stimulated an unprecedented inflow of foreign investment in Israel, and provided a substantial boost to economic growth in the region over the last decade. The onset of the intifada beginning at the end of September of 2000, the downturn in the high-tech sector and Nasdaq crisis, and the slowdown of the global economy have all significantly affected the Israeli economy. However, despite the recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, the Israeli economy grew during 2006.
[[File:Shopping Tel Aviv Israel.jpg|right]]
Israeli companies, particularly in the high-tech area, have in the past enjoyed considerable success raising money on Wall Street and other world financial markets; Israel ranks second to Canada among foreign countries in the number of its companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Israel's tech market is very developed, and in spite of the pause in the industry's growth, the high-tech sector is likely to be the major driver of the Israeli economy. Almost half of Israel's exports are high tech. Most leading players, including Intel, IBM, and Cisco have a presence in Israel.

Growth was an exceptional 6.2% in 2000, due in part to a number of one-time high tech acquisitions and investments. This exceptional year was followed by two years of negative growth of -0.9% and -1%, respectively, in 2001 and 2002. As a result of the security situation and the associated downturn in the economy, there was a significant rise in unemployment and wage erosion. This led to a decline in private consumption in 2002, the first time that there had been negative private consumption since the early 1980s. However, following growth rates of 1.7% in 2003 and 4.4% in 2004, the Israeli economy entered into a period of stabilization and recovery after the deep recession of 2001 and 2002. Since then, the Israeli economy seems to have returned to a trend of consistent growth. The Israeli economy grew by 5.2% in 2005 and GDP per capita (U.S. $17,800) increased by 3.3%. The Israeli economy grew by an estimated 4.8% in 2006.

Exports of goods and services in Israel grew by 7% in 2005. Service and agricultural exports each increased by more than 10% in 2005, whereas exports increased by 5.6% and imports rose to 4.4%. [[Israel Tourism]] revenues increased by 22.7% as a result of the dramatic increase following the intifada's subsidence.

Israel's private consumption increased by 4% in 2005. The largest growth in private consumption was in the purchase of clothing, footwear, and personal effects, which increased by 10.2%, following an increase of 5.4% in 2004. Consumption of consumer durables grew much more slowly than in 2004, with an increase of only 3.4%, compared with 14.3% the previous year.

In the Israeli business sector, business GDP grew by 6.6% in 2005. According to CBS statistics, the transportation, storage, and communications industries grew by 9.2%, following growth of 6.6% in 2004. The GDP of the wholesale, retail, restaurant, and hotel sector increased by 8.1%, up from 6.1% in 2004. The GDP of the finance and business services sector in 2005 increased by 6.4%, up from the previous year's 6.1% growth rate.

The general consensus among economists is that Israel's economy is very strong and that its growth potential is in the 4% to 5% range.
[[File:Bar Rafaeli Israel.jpg|thumb|left|Bar Refaeli, model and actress.]]
The United States is Israel's largest trading partner. In 2005, two-way trade totaled some $26.6 billion, up 12% from 2004. The U.S. trade deficit with Israel was $7.1 billion in 2005, up 33% from 2004, due largely to rising Israeli exports to the U.S. U.S. exports to Israel rose 6.1% in 2005 to $9.7 billion, making Israel our 19th largest export market for goods. The principal goods exported from the U.S. include civilian aircraft parts, telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, civilian aircraft, electrical apparatus, and computer accessories. Israel's chief exports to the U.S. include diamonds, pharmaceutical preparations, telecommunications equipment, medicinal equipment, electrical apparatus, and cotton apparel. The two countries signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in 1985 that progressively eliminated tariffs on most goods traded between the two countries over the following 10 years. An agricultural trade accord signed in November 1996 addressed the remaining goods not covered in the FTA but has not entirely erased barriers to trade in the agricultural sector. Israel also has trade and cooperation agreements in place with the European Union, Canada, Mexico, and other countries.

Best prospect industry sectors in Israel for U.S. exporters are electricity and gas equipment, defense equipment, medical instruments and disposable products, industrial chemicals, telecommunication equipment, electronic components, building materials/construction industries (DIY and infrastructure), safety and security equipment and services, non-prescription drugs, travel and tourism services, and computer software.

==History==
[[File:Twelve Tribes of Israel.JPG|thumb|left|Twelve Tribes of Israel.]]
[[File:Baal thunderbolt Louvre AO15775.jpg|thumb|Stele of the Canaanite god Baal with a thunderbolt, 15th-13th century BC.]]
[[File:Map of the Holy Land.jpg|thumb|Map of the Holy Land Divided into the XII Tribes of Israel, by Emanuel Bowen, PUBLISHED 1752.]]
The name Israel refers to [[Jacob]] from the [[Bible]], the father of the [[Jews]] who would eventually create the kingdom of Israel. (See the [[Genesis|Book of Genesis]] in the Bible.) Jacob's descendants were numerous, but were put under bondage in [[Egypt]]. The first attempt at forming a nation dates back to the migration or [[Exodus of Israel]] out of Egypt after being freed from their [[slavery]]. (See the [[Exodus|Book of Exodus]] in the Bible). While the exact date is not known, the most likely scenario is in the 1400's B.C. After 40 years of wandering, the Hebrews attempted to settle in the land of Canaan, after first having to fight battles with the inhabitants. (See the [[Joshua (Biblical book)|Book of Joshua]] in the Bible). The Jewish people lived for hundreds of years under Judges (See the [[Judges|Book of Judges]] in the Bible) before forming a monarchy under their first King, [[Saul]] in 1050 B.C. Israel expanded under [[King David|David]] from 1010 to 970 B.C. and then reached its height under [[Solomon]] from 970 to 930 B.C. With the death of Solomon the united kingdom of Israel split in two with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin forming their own nation, [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]]. (See [[I Samuel]], [[II Samuel]], [[I Kings]], [[I Chronicles]] in the Bible)

The first King of Israel was [[Jeroboam I]], who made his capital at [[Shechem]] until it was replaced by [[Samaria]] under [[Omri]]. Almost immediately the Israeli kings "did evil in the sight of the Lord" and turned away from the Lord God. Although they were larger and more powerful than Judah, they fell more quickly due to their apostacy. Israel continued being ruled by kings until its conquest by [[Assyria]] in 722 B.C. Judah had a number of kings who did what was right in God's sight, but eventually they too were turning away. They continued as an independent nation until 586 B.C. when they fell to the [[Babylonians]]. Both of these conquests led to many Jews being deported from the land of Israel. While under [[Persian empire|Persian]] rule after the Babylonians had fallen to the Persians, the Jews were allowed to return and rebuild their temple (520 - 516 B.C.)<ref>An Encyclopedia of World History, Kingsport Press, 1948</ref> In the 400's B.C. they began to return to God as well, showing a reverence for Him that was often lacking during the time they had their own kingdom. Still under Persian rule and with their blessing, [[Nehemiah]] came to rebuild the walls of [[Jerusalem]], a position that was bitterly opposed by the other peoples living on the land. The Jews had to stand guard as they built.
[[File:Jews in Cochin PD.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Cochin Jews are the oldest group of Jews in [[India]].]]
When [[Alexander the Great]] swept through Israel in 332 B.C., Persian rule had ended to be replaced by [[Macedone|Greek]]. Upon Alexander's death in 323 B.C. there was a fight for power among his generals and subordinates, which led to Israel coming under control of the Ptolemies, the Greek leaders of Egypt. The Jews were treated leniently until the [[Seleucids]], the Greek leaders of Syria, pushed back the Ptolemies and took over Israel in 198 B.C. The Seleucids were not as lenient and under [[Antiochus IV]] (175 to 164 B.C.) conditions worsened considerably. In 168 B.C. Judaism was declared to be illegal and a pig was sacrified on the altar of the Jewish temple; the Jews revolted under the [[Maccabees]] and fought a prolonged [[guerrilla war]] until their eventual religious independence in 164 B.C. Complete acknowledgement of independence from the Seleucids didn't come until 142 B.C. when Roman pressure helped them to make the decision to let Israel go. This independence would last until 63 B.C., when infighting caused the Jews to ask for [[Roman]] intervention. Rome stopped the fighting, but Israel came under Roman rule as the province of [[Palestine]]. The Jewish people would not have their independence again for over 2000 years. It was under this state of Roman control that [[Jesus]] was born around 4 B.C. Three revolts against Roman rule by the Jews, the first in 66 A.D., the next in 115 A.D., and the last in 132 A.D. took place, and failed. After the failure of the third, the Romans forced the Jews to leave Israel thus beginning the [[diaspora]], the dispersal of the Jews from the land of Palestine.

By the fifth century the inhabitants of the region were Christianized, under the [[Byzantine Empire]], a situation which continued until the [[Arab]] invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs brought with them the [[Islam]]ic faith which, due to its many similarities with [[Christianity]] and [[Judaism]] and the social advantages it brought, was gradually adopted by the population. However, Jewish and Christian citizens continued to live in the region, in relative peace, until the Crusades.

The [[Crusades]] saw part of the Holy Lands reconquered from Islam in the name of Christianity. The Crusader states were temporary before being conquered by Islam again with the fall of the last Crusader state in 1290. First the [[Mamelukes]] controlled the area, then starting in the early 1500's, the [[Ottoman Turks]] conquered the region. [[World War I]] saw a British victory over the Ottoman's and the region came under British mandate of Palestine in 1920.

The British and late Ottoman authorities permitted the resettlement of Jews from Europe, many of them looking to establish a Jewish state in the region, part of a movement called [[Zionism]]. In the last years of British mandate the number and strength of the Jews in [[Palestine]] increased, with many adopting extremely radical tactics to achieve their goal of an independent Jewish state. Terrorist organizations such as Irgun and Lehi attacked British and Arab targets, killing civilians in the process. Britain's occupation became too expensive and they handed control to the [[United Nations]] to sort out a solution.

==Modern Nation==
[[Image:Zion.jpg|right|300px|Jaffa (Yafo) gate, Jerusalem.]]
The recreation of the State of Israel in 1948 was preceded by more than 50 years of efforts to re-establish a sovereign state as a homeland for the Jewish nation. These efforts were initiated by Theodore Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement, and were given added impetus by the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which asserted the British Government's support for the recreation of a Jewish homeland in roughly its [[Promised Land|original position]], which was then known as Palestine.

In the years following [[World War I]], Palestine became a British Mandate and the number of Jews returning to their homeland steadily increased, as did violence between Palestine's Jewish and Arab communities. Mounting British efforts to restrict this immigration were countered by international support for Jewish national aspirations following the near-extermination of European Jewry by the [[Nazis]] during [[World War II]]. This support led to the 1947 UN partition plan, which would have divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under UN administration.

[[Image:Israel48.jpg|thumb|400px|left]] On May 14, 1948, immediately after the British quit Palestine, the State of Israel was proclaimed and was immediately invaded by armies from neighboring Arab states, which rejected the UN partition plan. This conflict, Israel's War of Independence, was concluded by armistice agreements between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria in 1949 and resulted in a 50% increase in Israeli territory. The U.S. immediately recognized Israel and gave large amounts of financial aid through private sources, but did not at this time send military aid.

In 1956, French, British, and Israeli forces engaged Egypt in response to its nationalization of the Suez Canal and blockade of the Straits of Tiran. Israeli forces withdrew in March 1957, after the United Nations established the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Gaza Strip and Sinai. This war resulted in no territorial shifts and was followed by several years of terrorist incidents and retaliatory acts across Israel's borders.
===Six Day War (1967)===
In June 1967, Israeli forces in the [[Six-Day War]] struck targets in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in response to Egyptian President Nasser's ordered withdrawal of UN peace keepers from the Sinai Peninsula and the buildup of Arab armies along Israel's borders. After 6 days, all parties agreed to a cease-fire, under which Israel retained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River, and East Jerusalem. On November 22, 1967, the Security Council adopted Resolution 242, the "land for peace" formula, which called for the establishment of a just and lasting peace based on Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in return for the end of all states of belligerency, respect for the sovereignty of all states in the area, and the right to live in peace within secure, recognized boundaries. The Six Day War had a momentous effect on [[American Jews]], mobilizing new support for Israel.

The following years were marked by continuing violence across the Suez Canal, punctuated by the 1969-70 [[War of Attrition]] between Israel and Egypt. On October 6, 1973--Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement), the armies of Syria and Egypt [[Yom Kippur War|launched an attack against Israel]]. Although the Egyptians and Syrians initially made significant advances, Israel was able to push the invading armies back beyond the 1967 cease-fire lines by the time the United States and the Soviet Union helped bring an end to the fighting. In the UN Security Council, the United States supported Resolution 338, which reaffirmed Resolution 242 as the framework for peace and called for peace negotiations between the parties.

In the years that followed, sporadic clashes continued along the cease-fire lines but guided by the U.S., Egypt, and Israel continued negotiations. In November 1977, Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]] made a historic visit to Jerusalem, which opened the door for the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace summit convened at Camp David by [[Jimmy Carter|President Carter]]. These negotiations led to a 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, pursuant to which Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1982, signed by President Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menahem Begin of Israel.

In the years following the 1948 war, Israel's border with Lebanon was quiet relative to its borders with other neighbors. After the expulsion of Palestinian fighters from Jordan in 1970 and their influx into southern Lebanon, however, hostilities along Israel's northern border increased and Israeli forces crossed into Lebanon. After passage of Security Council Resolution 425, calling for Israeli withdrawal and the creation of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeeping force (UNIFIL), Israel withdrew its troops.
[[File:Karakal Israel.jpg|left]]
In June 1982, following a series of cross-border terrorist attacks and the attempted assassination of the Israeli Ambassador to the U.K., Israel invaded Lebanon to fight the forces of Yasser Arafat's [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO). The PLO withdrew its forces from Lebanon in August 1982. Israel, having failed to finalize an agreement with Lebanon, withdrew most of its troops in June 1985 save for a residual force which remained in southern Lebanon to act as a buffer against attacks on northern Israel. These remaining forces were completely withdrawn in May 2000 behind a UN-brokered delineation of the Israel-Lebanon border (the Blue Line). Hezbollah forces in Southern Lebanon continued to attack Israeli positions south of the Blue Line in the Sheba Farms/Har Dov area of the Golan Heights.

The victory of the U.S.-led coalition in the [[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]] of 1991 opened new possibilities for regional peace. In October 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union convened the Madrid Conference, in which Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, and Palestinian leaders laid the foundations for ongoing negotiations designed to bring peace and economic development to the region. Within this framework, Israel and the PLO signed a Declaration of Principles on September 13, 1993, which established an ambitious set of objectives relating to a transfer of authority from Israel to an interim Palestinian authority. Israel and the PLO subsequently signed the Gaza-Jericho Agreement on May 4, 1994, and the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities on August 29, 1994, which began the process of transferring authority from Israel to the Palestinians.

On October 26, 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a historic peace treaty, witnessed by President Clinton. This was followed by Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and PLO Chairman Arafat's signing of the historic Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on September 28, 1995. This accord, which incorporated and superseded previous agreements, broadened Palestinian self-government and provided for cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians in several areas.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by a right-wing Jewish radical, bringing the increasingly bitter national debate over the peace process to a climax. Subsequent Israeli governments continued to negotiate with the PLO resulting in additional agreements, including the Wye River and the Sharm el-Sheikh memoranda. However, a summit hosted by President Clinton at Camp David in July 2000 to address permanent status issues--including the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, final security arrangements, borders, and relations and cooperation with neighboring states--failed to produce an agreement.

Following the failed talks, widespread violence broke out in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in September 2000. In April 2001 the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact Finding Committee, commissioned by the October 2000 Middle East Peace Summit and chaired by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, submitted its report, which recommended an immediate end to the violence followed by confidence-building measures and a resumption of security cooperation and peace negotiations. Building on the Mitchell report, In April 2003, the Quartet (the U.S., UN, European Union (EU), and the Russian Federation) announced the "roadmap," a performance-based plan to bring about two states, Israel and a democratic, viable Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.

Despite the promising developments of spring 2003, violence continued and in September 2003 the first Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), resigned after failing to win true authority to restore law and order, fight terror, and reform Palestinian institutions. In response to the deadlock, in the winter of 2003-2004 Prime Minister Sharon put forward his Gaza disengagement initiative, proposing the withdrawal of Israeli settlements from Gaza as well as parts of the northern West Bank. President Bush endorsed this initiative in an exchange of letters with Prime Minister Sharon on April 14, 2004, viewing Gaza disengagement as an opportunity to move towards implementation of the two-state vision and begin the development of Palestinian institutions. In a meeting in May 2004 the Quartet endorsed the initiative, which was approved by the Knesset in October 2004.

The run-up to disengagement saw a flurry of diplomatic activity, including the February 2005 announcement of Lieutenant General William Ward as U.S. Security Coordinator; the March 2005 Sharon-Abbas summit in Sharm el-Sheikh; the return of Egyptian and Jordanian ambassadors to Israel; and the May 2005 appointment of former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn as Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement to work for a revitalization of the Palestinian economy after disengagement. Wolfensohn's direct involvement spurred Israeli-Palestinian agreement on the Gaza ‘crossings" at Karni and Erez, on the demolition of settler homes, water, electricity, and communications infrastructure issues, as well as other issues related to the Palestinian economy.

[[File:Israeli Defense Forces.jpg|center]]

On August 15, 2005, Israel began implementing its disengagement from the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli Defense Forces completed their withdrawal, including the dismantling of 17 settlements, on September 12. After broad recognition for Prime Minister Sharon's accomplishment at that fall's UN General Assembly, international attention quickly turned to efforts to strengthen Palestinian governance and the economy in Gaza. The United States brokered a landmark Agreement on Movement and Access between the parties in November 2005 to facilitate further progress on Palestinian economic issues. However, the terrorist organization Hamas--building on popular support for its "resistance" to Israeli occupation and a commitment to clean up the notorious corruption of the Palestinian Authority (PA)--took a majority in the January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections, with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya as Prime Minister. The Israeli leadership pledged not to work with a Palestinian government in which Hamas had a role.

Shortly following Hamas' PLC victory, the Quartet--comprised of the United States, European Union, United Nations. and Russia--outlined three basic principles the Hamas-led PA must meet in order for the U.S. and the international community to reengage with the PA: renounce violence and terror, recognize Israel, and respect previous agreements, including the roadmap. The Hamas-led PA government rejected these principles, resulting in a Quartet statement of "grave concern" on March 30, 2006 and the suspension of U.S. assistance to the PA, complete prohibition on U.S. Government contacts with the PA, and prohibition of unlicensed transactions with the PA government. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under the leadership of PLO Chairman and PA President Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), by contrast, remained consistently committed to the Quartet principles.
[[File:Israeli tanks Gaza strip borders 2007.jpg|left|thumb|340px|Israeli tanks, Gaza strip borders, 2007.]]
Despite several negotiated cease-fires between Hamas and Fatah, violent clashes in the Gaza Strip--and to a lesser extent in the West Bank--were commonplace between December 2006 and February 2007 and resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries. In an attempt to end the intra-Palestinian violence, the King of Saudi Arabia invited Palestinian rivals to Mecca, and on February 9, 2007, Abbas and Hamas leader Haniya agreed to the formation of a Palestinian national unity government and a cessation of violence. Hamas' rejectionist policies and violent behavior continued despite the formation of the national unity government.

In June 2007, Hamas effectively orchestrated a violent coup in Gaza. Hamas also launched scores of Qassam rockets into southern Israel in an attempt to involve Israel in the Hamas-Fatah conflict. On June 14, Palestinian Authority President Mahoud Abbas exercised his lawful authority by declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the national unity government, and replacing it with a new government with Salam Fayyad as Prime Minister.

The new Palestinian Authority government under President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad has no elements controlled by Hamas. The new government claims they are dedicated to peace and the Quartet principles and has been embraced politically and financially by the international community, including Israel, mainly because of the far worse alternative that Hamas represent.

==See also==
*[[Israel Tourism]]
*[[Jewish philosophy]]
*[[Israelophobia]]
*[[Gaza Strip]]
*[[Gallery of Jewish Painting]]
*[[Suicide bomber]]
*[[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]
*[[Jews in history]]
*[[In the midst of a Maelstrom: the Holy Spirit and silence: an essay]] an encounter between Israeli Jew and Egyptian Muslim in Alexandria
*[[Christmas in the Holy Land: an essay]]
*[[Adiabene]]
*[[What is Torah, what is Talmud]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jewishsbook.html Internet Jewish History Sourcebook]
*[http://israelemb.org/kids/ Welcome to Israel (for Kids)]
*[http://www.usy.org/yourusy/israel/support/ Ways to Support Israel]
*[http://www.jewart.com/2007/11/07/jewish-art-in-history/ Jewish art in history]
*[http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/collections/photoarchive.asp Photographic Archive] The Jewish Museum.
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7v1C0VUhyA A Hamas made video of one of their suicide bomber operations]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOVhTFOPKxc&feature=related Failed suicide bombing attempt by anguishing 21 year old woman]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zegXBwGBPZs Touring in Jerusalem, Tagalog and English]
*[http://www.conservativenewsandviews.com/2011/05/07/clergy/journey-to-israel-day-1/ Journey to Israel, Day One]
*[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/potoc.html American Attitudes Toward Israel.]
*[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewstoc.html Jews in America.]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/under-pillar-of-cloud.html Under a "Pillar of a Cloud"]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russia and the U.S.]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Orde Wingate amd the Night Raiders: Give 'em He...Heaven!]

==Further reading==
[[File:Zionism1.jpg|thumb|270px|in front: David Ben Gurian, Golda Meir, Theodor Herzl]]
* Gilbert, Martin. ''Israel: A History'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/Israel-History-Martin-Gilbert/dp/0688123635/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261917385&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
* Oren, Michael B. ''Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East'' (2003), 480pp; standard history of the war [http://www.amazon.com/Six-Days-War-Making-Modern/dp/0345461924/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255773712&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Sachar, Howard M. ''A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/History-Israel-Rise-Zionism-Time/dp/0375711325/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261732421&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Shindler, Colin. ''A History of Modern Israel'' (2008), very good on politics; thin otherwise. [http://www.amazon.com/History-Modern-Israel-Colin-Shindler/dp/0521615380/ref=pd_sim_b_2 excerpt and text search]
* Stein, Leslie. ''The Hope Fulfilled: The Rise of Modern Israel'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Fulfilled-Praeger-Israeli-Studies/dp/027597815X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261915375&sr=1-1#noop excerpt and text search]
* Tucker, Spencer C., ed. ''The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict A Political, Social, and Military History'' (4 vol. 2008); vol 4 includes 150 primary sources
* Wigoder, Geoffrey, ed. ''New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel'' (2nd ed. 2 vol. 1994); 1521pp
===Primary sources===
* Laqueur, Walter, and Rubin, Barry, eds. ''The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict'' (7th ed. 2008) 626p.
* Rabinovich, Itamar, and Reinharz, Jehuda, eds. ''Israel in the Middle East: Documents and Readings on Society, Politics, and Foreign Relations, pre-1948 to the Present.'' (2008) 626pp

==References==

<References/>

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

Source: [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3581.htm]

{{Asian Countries}}

[[Category:Biblical Places]]
[[Category:Israel]]
[[Category:Zionism]]
[[Category:Israeli Wars]]
[[Category:Religion and Politics]]

September 11, 2001 attacks

2013-04-18T00:44:39Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External Links */

[[Image:National Park Service 9-11 Statue of Liberty and WTC fire.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The view of the burning towers of the World Trade Center from Staten Island, New York City, September 11, 2001]]
[[File:Pentagon sept11.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The damage to the Pentagon, Washington D.C., September 11, 2001]]
The '''Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001''' occurred when [[al Qaeda]], [[Islam|Islamic extremists]] hijacked four transcontinental airliners and used them to strike targets in the [[United States]]; two aircraft destroyed the twin towers of the [[World Trade Center]] in [[New York City]]; the third crashed into a portion of the [[Pentagon]] in Washington, D.C.; and the fourth aircraft - in which the hijackers are believed to have targeted the White House or the Capitol Building - crashed into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers fought back to re-take control.

The sheer audacity of the attack and the heavy loss of life that resulted from it caused the U.S. government to declare a [[War on Terror]] with the determination to hunt down terrorists world-wide; within two months of September 11, [[Afghanistan]] was completely occupied by Coalition forces, driving the ruling Islamo-fascist [[Taliban]] from power and causing the head of [[al Qaeda]] and the man who personally approved the attacks - [[Osama bin Laden]] - to flee into hiding.

==The Hijacking==
All 19 hijackers boarded the planes on the morning of September 11, having carefully chosen flights whose routes would be transcontinental. Two planes flew out of Boston's Logan Airport, one flew from Washington's Dulles International Airport, and the fourth left an airport in Newark, New Jersey.

===New York City===
[[File:911rtrs 468x683.jpg|right|200px|thumb|United Airlines Flight 175 about to crash into the south tower of of the World Trade Center as the north tower burns from the crash of American Airlines Flight 11.]]
American Airlines Flight 11 left Logan Airport around 8 AM, carrying 11 crew and 81 passengers; its destination was Los Angeles, California. United Airlines Flight 175 left Logan a few minutes later, carrying 9 crew and 56 passengers, and also on a flight to Los Angeles. Both aircraft were the 767-200, manufactured by the Boeing Company.

At 8:25 AM Boston air traffic controllers heard a strange voice from Flight 11: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet, and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport." The plane then headed south toward New York City; at 8:46 AM the plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center between the 93 and 99th floors. Sixteen minutes later, at 9:03 AM, Flight 175 crashed into the south tower - at a greater speed and more oblique angle - between the 77th and 85th floors.

The impact of the crashes took out any hope of getting to victims and survivors on the affected floors and the floors above; many people desperate to get away from the smoke and fire jumped. Both towers were designed to survive the impact of a 1960s-era jet, but the Boeing 767 was larger and carried more fuel; it was determined later that the heat from the burning fuel weakened the central steel structure and supports. At 9:59 am the south tower collasped; the upper floors had lost support in the damaged area and fell - pancake style - to the ground. At 10:29 AM the north tower fell in a similar manner. The death toll was around 2,750, including more than 300 firefighters and 100 police officers and other rescue workers.

The building at 7 World Trade Center, commonly abbreviated as WTC7, also collapsed in the attacks. This collapse is frequently cited in various [[9/11 conspiracy theories|conspiracy theories]].

===Washington, D.C.===
American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-200, left Dulles at 8:20 AM, carrying 6 crew and 58 passengers on a flight to Los Angeles. Forty minutes later the aircraft had turned back toward Washington; at 9:37 it crashed at high-speed into the west side of the Pentagon, killing a total of 184 people. Despite being built of reinforced concrete, the aircraft was able to penetrate to the third concentric ring of the building.

===Shanksville, Pennsylvania===
[[File:ShanksvilleSept11.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Val McClatchey snapped this photo moments after Flight 93 hit the ground near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.]]
United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-200, left Newark at 8:40 AM, with a destination of San Francisco. Unlike the other planes which had four hijackers each, Flight 93 had three; it also had passengers who, through onboard phone calls, learned of the previous hijackings and crashes and determined to wrest control of the aircraft back from the terrorists. Turned towards Washington, the plane ended up crashing in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM, the only one of the aircraft which failed to reach its target. Among the recorded conversations between the passengers and phone operators was the phrase "Let's roll" by Todd Beamer, made just before he set down his phone and took action with the other passengers involved; Beamer's last phrase would become a rallying cry in the coming war on terrorism.

===Ground Casualties===
The total loss of life is constantly being reevaluated to account for wrongly reported missing persons and, in some cases, occurrences of fraud. Estimates of more than 6,000 deaths were announced following the attacks. The current estimate is 2,996 fatalities as a direct result of the attacks. About 500 foreign nationals from over 90 countries are believed to have died in the attack.<ref> [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/10/29/wtc.deaths/ "New York Reduces 9/11 Death Toll by 40"] at CNN.com, Phil Hirschkorn, 10/29/03</ref>

The Department of Defense reported the deaths of 125 people at The Pentagon. The aftermath of the World Trade Center towers collapsing created a good deal of confusion and has been the main source of discrepancies in casualty estimates. As of October 29, 2003, New York City reported 2605 deaths in the attacks, not counting the passengers and crew of the planes. <ref> [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/10/29/wtc.deaths/ "New York Reduces 9/11 Death Toll by 40"] at CNN.com, Phil Hirschkorn, 10/29/03</ref>

As a matter of course, the deaths of the 19 [[suicide|hijackers]] are not included in these casualty totals.

===Economic Impact===
The material costs of the attacks are well in excess of one hundred billion US dollars. Factoring in stock market losses, loss of revenue in New York City, loss of jobs, impact on air travel, and heightened security, some estimate the cost approaches two trillion dollars.<ref>[http://www.iags.org/costof911.html The Cost of September 11] Institute for the Analysis of Global Security</ref>

Some estimates of the cost of executing the plan place it in the $400,000-$500,000 range, making it an extremely "profitable" operation for al-Qaeda. <ref>[http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Exec.htm The 9/11 Commission Report]</ref>

==The Suspects==
Suspicion fell on Osama bin Laden and his [[Islam|Islamic extremist]] al-Qaeda organization almost immediately. Known to have harbored hatred for the United States since the basing of U.S. fighters and other military personnel in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, bin Laden has tried "To kill Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it," <ref>[http://awildernessvoice.com/Mohammed.html]</ref>, and often succeeding. In four previous attacks, bin Laden's operatives
*killed 6 in a bomb explosion in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993;
*killed 19 soldiers in 1996 at a military housing complex in Saudi Arabia;
*killed more than 200 people in the simultaneous bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania;
*killed 17 sailors by putting an explosives-laden boat next to USS ''Cole'' while that destroyer was refueling in Yemen in 2000.

His personal fortune, estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, has enabled him to finance well-coordinated operations, including the training of the hijackers in close-quarter fighting, commandeering of aircraft, and ironically to bankroll their education in American flight schools.

==Social Impacts==

Following the attacks there was a strong surge of patriotism in virtually all facets of American society. The government, being aware that the most deadly attack ever on American soil could stir up animosity against the ethnic or religious group of the perpetrators, went out of its way along with the media to separate Islam from the actions taken by its more radical adherents, referring to it at multiple times as a "religion of love". While people of Middle Eastern decent and adherents of Islam were concerned at first, the overall effect of hostility towards these groups was barely noticeable. Although there were literally millions of Muslims in America out of a total population of 300 million who could have sought out reprisals, in an entire year less than 500 cases of aggression of verbal hostility were reported. Muslims responded to the magnanimous treatment they received from Americans by seeking to construct an insulting and offensive [[Ground Zero Mosque]].

==Consequences of the Attacks on U.S. Policy==
===Domestic Policy===

The attacks were a direct or indirect cause of massive changes in United States domestic policy. Most notably, the ''Homeland Security Act of 2002'' "established a [[Department of Homeland Security]], as an executive department of the United States" <ref>[http://www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/bill/hsl-bill.pdf H.R. 5005 The Homeland Security Act]</ref>, a cabinet level position. One of the tools implemented by the Department is the [[Homeland Security Advisory System]], a color coded advisory system meant to "establish a comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to Federal, State, and local authorities and to the American people." <ref>[http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/laws/ DHS Laws and Regulations] Department of Homeland Security</ref>

Another notable result of the attacks was the ''[[USA PATRIOT Act|USA PATRIOT Act of 2001]]'' ('''U'''niting and '''S'''trengthening '''A'''merica by '''P'''roviding '''A'''ppropriate '''T'''ools '''R'''equired to '''I'''ntercept and '''O'''bstruct '''T'''errorism). The act was written to expand the authority of law enforcement and the justice system in the pursuit of terrorism suspects.<ref>[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.R.3162.ENR: ''The USA PATRIOT Act''] Library of Congress</ref>

===Foreign Policy===

In response to the attacks, the United States declared a [[War on Terror]], which comprises United States military action in [[Afghanistan]] and [[Iraq]] as well as a significant increase in intelligence gathering and a new outlook on foreign relations.

==Conspiracy Theories==

''Main article: [[9/11 conspiracy theories]]''

[[Image:393px-WTC-remnant highres.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Remains of the South Tower, September 13, 2001.]]
Many conspiracy theories have sprouted up from the events of September 11, 2001, including the "Loose Change" movies seen on YouTube.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061002/alterman Lying About 9/11? Easy as [[ABC]]], Eric Alterman, ''The Nation'', September 14, 2006 (October 2, 2006 issue).</ref> These movies have been comprehensively disproven by independent experts.<ref>[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html "Debunking The 9/11 Myths"] ''Popular Mechanics'', Mar. 2005 Cover Story</ref> Prominent endorsers of such theories include talk show host [[Rosie O'Donnell]] as well as actor [[Charlie Sheen]]. A third of the American public has bought into the idea of some sort of role by federal officials.<ref>[http://www.scrippsnews.com/911poll Third of Americans Suspect 9-11 Government Conspiracy] ''Scrippsnews'', Hargrove, Thomas, 8/01/06</ref> This view is much more common among those who get their news solely from the internet and is rare for those who read newspapers or watch the news on regular television. {{fact}}

==See Also==
*[[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]

==Sources==
*[http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf The 9/11 Commission Report]
*[http://wtc.nist.gov/NISTNCSTAR1CollapseofTowers.pdf Final Report on the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers], [[National Institute of Standards and Technology|NIST]].
*[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/index.html September 11: Chronology of Terror] at CNN.com
*[http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/penttbom/penttbomb.htm Federal Bureau of Investigations PENTTBOM Press Release]
*[http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/main.html Lists of Victims] at CNN.com

==External Links==
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Two Flags, One God, and no escape]
*[http://www.thecrossandthetowers.com/ The Cross and The Towers] (Documentary Film)
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Turkey's Islamic leader, Israel's Chief Rabbi, and Al Qaida's assassination attempt]

==Additional Information==
*[http://www.archive.org/details/sept_11_tv_archive The Internet Archive's file of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, and BBC broadcasts for Sept 11-13, 2001]
*[http://www.televisionarchive.org/ Television Archive of news broadcasts for 9/11]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Terrorism}}
[[category:United States History]]
[[Category:Riots and terrorist incidents in the United States]]
[[Category:Afghanistan War]]

Terrorism

2013-04-18T00:41:48Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External Links */

[[Image:Terrormunich.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A member of [[Black September]], a terrorist group, during the [[Munich massacre|1972 Munich Olympics]]]]'''[[Terrorism]]''' is defined by the US [[Department of Defense]] as "''the unlawful use of -- or threatened use of -- force or violence against individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, often to achieve political, religious, or ideological objectives.''"

==Terrorist==
One who uses [[terroristic tactics]] to coerce behavior in another person or group is generally considered to fall under the definition of the term "terrorist". One who uses such terroristic tactics ([[suicide bombing]], [[sniper]], [[assassination]], [[random bombing]], etc.) can often be described as such. Aeroflight in the UK [http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/definitions.htm], defines it as: ''"One who utilizes the systematic use of violence and/or intimidation to achieve political objectives, while disguised as a civilian non-combatant. The use of a civilian disguise while on operations exempts the perpetrator from protection under the [[Geneva Convention]]s, and consequently if captured they are liable for prosecution as common criminals."''

==Terrorism==
Terrorism is the use of terror (fear), violence, and intimidation to achieve an end. Terrorism also refers to any fear and subjugation produced by this. The term is also used to describe violence or other harmful acts committed (or threatened) against civilians by groups or persons for political or ideological goals. Terrorism is the unlawful use or threatened use, of force, ''intimidation'', and/or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

===Leftist (Radical) Terrorism===

[[Leftist]] Terrorism, often referred to as radical terrorism, is terrorism that embraces the fringe left side of the political spectrum (Countries that are hostile to dissident terrorist movements often also see violence from the far left as well). Radical terrorists are future orientated. That is, radicals believe that they are currently being oppressed by some current government, ideology or regime, and therefore they should overthrow that oppressor and install a better government. Radical terrorists often operate with the belief that it is possible to create a utopia for the people. Radicals generally follow the beliefs of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Lenin]], with emphasis on the idea of Lenin's [[vanguard party]]. Leftist terrorists often choose symbolic targets that emphasize what they see as a an oppressor to the working class. Leftist terrorist tend to target buildings and governmental structures that represent [[capitalism]], or assassinate government leaders and capitalists. Leftist terrorists are self characterized as the young, self-educated elites of society, who are destined to both weaken the oppressive government and at the same time expose the weakness of the government to the exploited workforce. Radicals also tend be more exclusive with what issues they champion. Often, very narrow radicals will focus on one issue, resulting in [[animal rights]], [[feminist]], and eco-terrorists. Radical groups often operated in highly organized and clandestine groups, easily recognizable and orderly. However, leftist groups often had internal divisions in the larger groups that often broke off to create new group.<ref>Gus Martin. Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues.</ref>

====Famous Radical Groups====

*[[Al-Qaeda]]
*[[Animal Liberation Front]]
*[[Earth Liberation Front]]
*[[Front de libération du Québec]]
*[[Irish Republican Army]]
*[[John Brown Anti-Klan Committee]]
*[[May 19th Communist Organization]]
*[[Muslim Brotherhood]]
*[[Prairie Fire Organizing Committee]]
*[[Red Army Faction]]
*[[Revolutionary Organization 17 November]]
*[[Symbionese Liberation Army]]
*[[Weather Underground Organization]]
*[[Youth International Party]]

===Right (Reactionary) Terrorism===

Historically, reactionary terrorism has been less organized and less symbolic than leftist terrorists. Reactionary terrorists, like radical terrorists, see the current government as corrupt, but unlike radical leftists, reactionaries do not see the current government as needing revolutionary change. Rather, reactionaries view the government as a perversion of some older, better, government or social order. Reactionary terrorist violence is an attempt to regain the lost government and return to "order" and status quo. Reactionary violence is often justified by a use of mysticism about the old order. Scapegoating is a common tactic among reactionary terrorists to create an enemy for which to blame for the current order. Historical scapegoats among reactionary terrorists have included [[Jew]]s, foreigners, [[homosexual]]s, [[atheist]]s, leftists, blacks, [[illegal immigrant]]s, and other racial minorities. Reactionary groups often defined by racial supremacy and a sense of order. Goals of reactionary terrorist include the delegation of minorities back to secondary status with respect to the national majority and a creation of a strong government to sustain order and prevent chaos through a police state. It should be noted however that due to conspiracy theories prevalence in the American fringe right, American reactionaries do not seek the creation of a strong government. Reactionaries often act as individuals or small groups and are not as discriminate with their targets as are leftist groups. This is partially due to the lack of unity between reactionaries and the scope of reactionary targets, often encompassing entire races.<ref>Gus Martin. Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues.</ref>

====Famous Reactionary Groups====

*[[Ku Klux Klan]]
*[[Skinheads]]
*[[New Order]]

== Domestic terrorists ==
In describing domestic terrorism before the House Resources Committee on February 12, 2002, James F. Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, stated:
:''"Domestic terrorism is the unlawful use, or threatened use, of violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States (or its territories) without foreign direction, committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. During the past decade we have witnessed dramatic changes in the nature of the terrorist threat. In the 1990s, right-wing extremism overtook left-wing terrorism as the most dangerous domestic terrorist threat to the country. During the past several years, special interest extremism, as characterized by the [[Animal Liberation Front]] (ALF) and the [[Earth Liberation Front]] (ELF), has emerged as a serious terrorist threat. Generally, extremist groups engage in much activity that is protected by constitutional guarantees of free speech and assembly. Law enforcement becomes involved when the volatile talk of these groups transgresses into unlawful action. The FBI estimates that the ALF/ELF have committed more than 600 criminal acts in the United States since 1996, resulting in damages in excess of 43 million dollars."'' [http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm]

The following organizations have been accused by the FBI of being involved with domestic terrorism:
*[[Animal Liberation Front]]
*[[Black Liberation Army]]
*[[Earth Liberation Front]]
*[[Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional]] (FALN)
*[[Ku Klux Klan]]
*[[Symbionese Liberation Army]]
*[[Army of God]]
*[[Weather Underground]]

== International ==

*[[Al-Qaeda]]

*[[PIRA]]

*[[Hamas]]

==Terrorism and the Media==

The prime goal of any terrorist is [[mass media]] exposure. Terrorism cannot recruit new initiates like regular armies, rather when they run out of discontented radicals within their state, they must rely on the media to spread their message. Therefore, media outlets and the press must be careful when choosing a story, as often running a story about a terrorist attack just creates more support for a terrorist cause.

== Groups Considered by the United States to be Terrorist Organizations ==
<ref>http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm</ref>
*[[Abu Nidal Organization]]
*[[Abu Sayyaf]]
*[[Aum Shinrikyo]]
*[[ETA]]
*[[Gama’a al-Islamiyya]]
*[[Hamas]]
*[[Harakat ul-Mujahidin]]
*[[Hizballah]]
*[[Kahane Chai]]
*[[PKK]]
*[[Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]]
*[[National Liberation Army]]
*[[Palestine Liberation Front]]
*[[Palestinian Islamic Jihad]]
*[[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]]
*[[PFLP-General Command]]
*[[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]]
*[[Revolutionary Organization 17 November]]
*[[Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front]]
*[[Shining Path]]
*[[Al-Qaeda]]
*[[Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan]]
*[[Real Irish Republican Army]]
*[[United Self Defense Forces of Colombia]]
*[[Jaish-e-Mohammed]]
*[[Lashkar-e Tayyiba]]
*[[Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade]]
*[[Asbat al-Ansar]]
*[[al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb]]
*[[Communist Party of the Philippines/New People's Army]]
*[[Jemaah Islamiya]]
*[[Lashkar i Jhangvi]]
*[[Ansar al-Islam]]
*[[Continuity Irish Republican Army]]
*[[Libyan Islamic Fighting Group]]
*[[al-Qaida in Iraq]]
*[[Islamic Jihad Union]]
*[[Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group]]
*[[Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh]]
*[[al-Shabaab]]
*[[Revolutionary Struggle]]
*[[Kata'ib Hizballah]]
*[[al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula]]
*[[Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami]]
*[[Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan]]
*[[Jundallah]]
*[[Army of Islam]]
*[[Indian Mujahedeen]]
*[[Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid]]
*[[Abdallah Azzam Brigades]]
*[[Haqqani Network]]
*[[Ansar al-Dine]]

==Groups directly or indirectly supporting terrorists==
The following organizations within the United States have either directly supported terrorist organizations world-wide through the use of money contributions or media influence, or have prevented enforcement of the laws on the books via court petitions and lawsuits:
*[[Noraid]]

== Groups receiving CIA support ==
The American CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) has the stated objective of ''"Conducting covert action at the direction of the President to preempt threats or achieve US policy objectives."''[https://www.cia.gov/cia/information/mission.html]. Over the course of its well-documented history, this has involved the establishment, funding and organization of various organizations some have regarded as terrorist, including:

*The [[Contras]]
*[[Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti]] (FRAPH)<ref>Reed Lindsay,[http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1163909,00.html ''Cold War returns to US backyard''], The Observer, March 7, 2004</ref>.

== War on terror ==

===Fighting terrorism===
*[http://lightonthings.blogspot.com#fight The Reality Show - The Watch the Fight] links to many sites that deal with the 'war on terror'.
*[[Fox News Channel|Fox News]] has compiled a [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335500,00.html list of known terror plots] thwarted by the U.S. government since Sept. 11, 2001.

==See also==
*[[FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List]]
*[[September 11, 2001 attacks]]
*[[June 2007 UK terror attacks]]
*[[Osama Bin Laden]]
*[[Homicide Bombers]]
*[[Pyroterrorism]]
*[[Sudden Jihad Syndrome]]
*[[Picture Gallery: Israeli children victims of terrorism]]
*[[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/guideDesc.asp?is_campus_support=1 DiscoverTheNetworks.org - Campus Support For Terrorism]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/terrorism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Terrorism], [[Accuracy In Media]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7v1C0VUhyA A Hamas made video of one of their suicide bomber operations]

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOVhTFOPKxc&feature=related Failed suicide bombing attempt by anguishing 21 year old woman]

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPU4UN03t7E&feature=related Failed suicide bombing attempt by 14 year old sent by his elders. His explanation why - because he was afraid of "the people" and because of "paradise"]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Two Flags, Multiple Explosions, One God, and no Escape]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Turkey's Islamic leader, Israel's Chief Rabbi, and Al Qaida's assassination attempt]

==References==
<references/>

{{Terrorism}}

[[category:political Terms]]
[[Category: Terrorism]]

Al Qaeda

2013-04-18T00:37:14Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[Image:al_qaeda.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Osama bin Laden with Al-Qaeda members]]
'''Al-Qaeda''' ([[Arabic]]: القاعدة‎, Translation: ''the base'') is an international [[Jihadism|Jihadist]] [[terrorism|terrorist]] organization founded in the late 1980s to fight the [[Red Army]] of the [[Soviet Union]] in [[Afghanistan]], during the 1980-89 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Osama bin Bin Ladin and his comrades had their own sources of support and training, and they received little or no assistance from the United States,<ref>9/11 Commission Report, [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/pdf/sec2.pdf ''The Foundation of the New Terrorism''], pg. 56.</ref> which only provided funding to indigenous Afghan ''mujaheddin'', which al-Qaeda was not. It was led by [[Osama Bin Laden]] until he was killed by Navy SEALs and CIA operatives on May 2, 2011. It is predominantly composed of fanatical [[Sunni]] [[Islam|Muslim]]s. [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]], former leader of the [[Egypt]]ian terrorist group called the [[Muslim Brotherhood|Islamic Brotherhood]], now leads Al Qaeda since Bin Laden's death. Zawahiri has increasingly become the spokesperson for the terrorist network.

==Terrorist activities from 1998 - 2008==
[[File:911rtrs 468x683.jpg|thumb|Terrorists attack the World Trade Center]]
Al Qaeda is responsible for the [[September 11, 2001 attack]]s on the [[World Trade Center]] and [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] killing 3000 Americans, the bombings of American embassies in [[Kenya]] and [[Tanzania]] in 1998, the October 2000 bombing of the [[USS Cole]], and numerous other deaths and attacks.<ref>Ramzi Yousef, who delivered the explosives in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing killing six people, is the nephew of [[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]], a top figure in al-Qaeda. After the September 2001 attack, it was the opinion of many investigators and analysts that the perpetrators of that attack had a state sponsor - Iraq. A number of details, including the fact that Yousef was travelling on an Iraqi passport, as well as the date of the 1993 attack - the second anniversary of the U.S. liberation of Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War - furthered suspicions of Iraqi involvement in the 1993 incident. His uncle, Sheikh Mohammed was one of the masterminds the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and was arrested in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on March 1, 2003. [http://intelwire.egoplex.com/2007_03_14_exclusives.html]</ref> The group's wing in Iraq, many of which came from Libya, were responsible for insurgent attacks and bombings. The 9/11 Commission Report cites Bin laden meeting with Iraqi intelligence officials in Khartoum as early as 1995. Bin Laden declined reported Iraqi offers of a safe haven, instead settling in Afghanistan. Friendly contacts between Iraqis and Bin Laden continued, though there is no evidence of an operational relationship between the two sides.

"However difficult the fight in Iraq has become, we must win it," Mr. Bush said in discussing the 2007 Iraqi troop surge during a commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. "Al Qaeda is public enemy No. 1 for Iraq's young democracy. Al Qaeda is public enemy No. 1 for America as well."<ref>http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070523-115137-6054r.htm </ref>

Some [[liberals]] seem to have a problem calling this group what it is, a terrorist organization, and prefer to use the more "politically correct" terms: ''militant organization'' and its members ''rebels''.

By 2012 al-Qaeda was fighting in the [[Syrian Civil War]] against the Syrian leader [[Bashar al-Assad]]<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/12/leader-al-qaeda-calls-on-muslims-to-help-syrian-rebels/ </ref> A group called [[Ansar Dine]], which is connected with the al-Qaeda, fight against the government in [[Mali]].<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18870130 </ref>

==Downplaying al Qaeda's significance in the early Obama era==
By late 2009 analysts were reporting a decline in the strength and appeal of Al Qaeda. Its leadership was forced to retreat to remote mountain villages in Pakistan, and many leaders had been killed by missiles and manhunts. Its tactics of killing innocent civilians were said to have lost favor with the Muslim population in some countries. During the Bush/Cheney years of 2002 and 2009 the notion that suicide bombings are "often or sometimes justified" plunged across the Islamic world. Its terrorists launched 10 major attacks worldwide in 2004 but only three by 2008. "Al Qaeda is in the process of imploding," concluded professor Audrey Kurth Cronin of the National War College in Washington. In September 2009 American-led forces killed the leader of the Somali organization "Al Shabab", which is allied with Al Qaeda; the police in Indonesia killed the most wanted terrorist in Southeast Asia. It has become much harder for terrorists to move agents, money and supplies. <ref> Scott Shane, "Rethinking What to Fear," ''New York Times'' Sept. 27, 2009</ref>

==Al Qaeda in North Africa==
:''Main article: [[Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb]]
The [[Benghazi rebellion]] started as a series of protests in eastern [[Libya]] on February 16, 2011. Ansar al-Shariah, an offshoot of Al-Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM), vowed to overthrow [[secular]] strongman [[Muammar Gaddafi]]<ref> [http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/24/al-qaeda-in-n-africa-backs-libya-uprising-site.html Al Qaeda in N. Africa backs Libya uprising: SITE] </ref><ref> [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/07/libya-uprising-live-updates Libya uprising.] </ref> and establish [[Sharia]].

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi of the U.S. organized [[Libyan Fighting Group]] said [[jihad]]ists who killed American troops in [[Iraq]] were now serving on the front lines in Libya. <ref> [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links.] </ref> <ref> [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/world/guantanamo-files-libyan-detainee-now-us-ally-of-sorts.html Libyan, Once a Detainee, Is Now a U.S. Ally of Sorts.]</ref> NATO's Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee days before President Obama publicly admitted he ordered intervention that U.S. intelligence knew al Qaeda and [[Hezbollah]] elements were among the Libyan insurgents.<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8414583/Libya-al-Qaeda-among-Libya-rebels-Nato-chief-fears.html</ref>

On March 21, 2011, [[President Obama]] announced he ordered U.S. military force operations in Libya two days earlier over the objections of his most trusted and knowledgeable experts. Secretary of Defence [[Robert Gates]] opposed the action<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20038391-503544.html</ref> as did National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, and [[White House]] counterterrorism chief [[John O. Brennan]]. Libya was not vital to American national security interests and the rebels had ties to Al Qaeda.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html?_r=2&hp]</ref> However [[Secretary of State]] [[Hillary Clinton]] "won the bureaucratic battle to use [Department of Defence] resources to achieve what's essentially the State Department's objective... and Obama let it happen". <ref>[http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/18/how_obama_turned_on_a_dime_toward_war How Obama turned on a dime toward war.] </ref> Secretary Clinton stated:
{{cquote|We are currently doing everything we can to bomb, strafe and use missiles to carry the rebels into power in Libya. We want them to win. We just don’t know who they are.” <ref>http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/06/23/hillary-clinton-to-libya-skeptics-whose-side-are-you-on/ </ref>}}

A March 29, 2011 article in the ''[[Washington Post]]'' included these paragraphs:
{{Cquote|"It’s almost a certitude that at least part” of the Libyan opposition includes members of al-Qaeda, said Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA analyst and adviser to President Obama. Riedel said that anti-Gaddafi elements in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi have had “very close associations with al-Qaeda” dating back years....I would hope that we now have a good sense of the opposition in Libya and can say that this is 2 percent, not 20 percent,” Riedel said. “If we don’t, then we are running the risk of helping to bring to power a regime that could be very dangerous.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/libyan-opposition-includes-a-small-number-of-al-qaeda-fighters-us-officials-say/2011/03/29/AFRlXWyB_story.html</ref>}}

A document published by the U.S. [[West Point]] Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center revealed that jihadi rebels between 2005 and 2007 exited Libya to join the [[Operation_Iraqi_Freedom#Insurgency|Islamic insurgency]] in Iraq in greater numbers than any other country.<ref>[http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony/pdf/CTCForeignFighter.19.Dec07.pdf A First Look at the Sinjar Documents]</ref><ref> The Sinjar Documents are a collection of al Qaeda computer data captured by Americans in 2007 in a predawn raid near Sinjar, Iraq, six miles from the Syrian border.</ref> Many of those jihadi rebels that came from Libya to Iraq to kill American soldiers came from among the very people Obama pledged to protect in the name of "humanitarianism". One group—the Libyan Fighting Group (''jamaʹah al‐libiyah al‐muqatilah'')—claimed to have [[War on Terror|Afghan]] veterans in its ranks. The Combating Terrorism Center document concludes,
{{Cquote|The [[Syria]]n [ [[Bashar al-Assad|Assad]] regime] and Libyan [Gaddafi] governments share the United States’ concerns about violent salafi‐jihadi ideology and the violence perpetrated by its adherents. These governments [Syria, Gaddafi, and the US] like others in the Middle East, fear violence inside their borders and would much rather radical elements go to Iraq rather than cause unrest at home. U.S. and Coalition efforts to stem the flow of fighters into Iraq will be enhanced if they address the entire logistical chain that supports the movement of these individuals—beginning in their home countries – rather than just their Syrian entry points.}}

This set off a fierce debate in the [[Obama administration]] over the wisdom of arming terrorists.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/world/africa/30diplo.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss</ref> It is now known sometime prior to March 31, 2011,<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/world/africa/31intel.html?_r=2&hp</ref> at the urging of Hillary Clinton and over the objections of his National Security Council, Obama signed a Presidential Finding authorizing support for the rebel jihadis.<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/us-libya-usa-order-idUSTRE72T6H220110330</ref>

===Ghaddafi's murder and Sharia law installed===
By October 2011, Libyan rebel fighting groups with support from [[NATO]], overtook the capital of Tripoli and toppled the government. Ghaddafi was captured and brutally and sadistically murdered.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPzeLLL9V-c Leading from behind - a critique of Obama foreign policy]</ref> The jihadis were immediately recognized by the U.S. and the U.N. as the legitimate government. Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, announced that [[Sharia]] will be the source for all legislation in Libya and that all laws conflicting with Sharia are null and void.<ref name="Sharia">[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8861608/Libya-Al-Qaeda-flag-flown-above-Benghazi-courthouse.html Libya: Al Qaeda flag flown above Benghazi courthouse - Daily Telegraph]</ref> Abdel Rahim al-Kib, the country's interim prime minister, echoed Jalil's words a couple of days later.<ref>[http://www.presstv.ir/detail/207953.html New Libyan PM backs Islamic sharia law]</ref> Around the same time these statements were made an Al Qaeda flag was flown above the Benghazi courthouse, and reports were surfacing that the Libyan jihadis imposed Sharia law in some parts of the country even earlier.<ref name="Sharia" />

U.S. intelligence says as many as 20,000 advanced Russian surface-to-air missiles were missing.<ref>[http://weaselzippers.us/2011/09/27/u-s-intelligence-now-says-up-to-20000-advanced-surface-to-air-missiles-mussing-from-libya/ U.S. Intelligence Now Says Up To 20,000 Advanced Surface-To-Air Missiles Missing From Lib, Weasel Zippers, September 27, 2011]</ref> Some of those missiles reached the hands of [[Hamas]] in the Gaza Strip.<ref>[http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hamas-boosting-anti-aircraft-arsenal-with-looted-libyan-missiles-1.392186 Hamas boosting anti-aircraft arsenal with looted Libyan missiles - Haaretz]</ref>

===American Ambassador murdered===
:{{main|Benghazi Attack}}
With several U.S.embassies besieged on the anniversary of the [[September 11 attacks]], White House Press Secretary [[Jay Carney]] declared authorities had no reason to believe the attack on the sovereign territory of the United States consulate in Benghazi less than two months before the [[2012 Presidential election]], resulting in the deaths of several Americans, was a terrorist attack.
{{Cquote|The unrest that we’ve seen around the region has been in reaction to a video that Muslims, many Muslims, find offensive.}}
This became the official White House line. President Obama went on the ''Comedy Channel'' to say the deaths of Americans was "not optimal".<ref>[http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/18/Obama-Benghazi-murders-not-optimal Interview with Jon Stewart of the ''Daily Show''].</ref> When pressed by reporters, who pointed out evidence that the violence in Benghazi was a terrorist attack, Press Secretary Carney argued “the unrest around the region has been in response to this video.”

Leading suspected jihadis in the murders and terrorist attack were the local Benghazi branch of Ansar al-Shariah, known to have ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.<ref>http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/10/19/when-an-obama-adviser-called-benghazi-an-al-qaeda-hotbed/?cxntfid=blogs_political_insider_jim_galloway</ref> A commander of the terrorist group boasted jovially about the attack over drinks with reporters for the ''[[New York Times]]'' in Benghazi<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/world/africa/election-year-stakes-overshadow-nuances-of-benghazi-investigation.html?pagewanted=2&ref=world</ref>.<ref>http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/frappe-libya-attack/</ref>

===Algeria and Mali===
Two more Americans were killed, along with 35 others, after being taken hostage by rebel jihadists in Mali shortly after the Libyan upheaval.<ref>[http://world.time.com/2013/01/21/algeria-37-foreigner-hostages-killed-in-attack/ Algeria: 37 Foreigner Hostages Killed in Attack], Associated Press, Jan. 21, 2013. ''[[TIME magazine]].</ref>

Hillary Clinton testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the wake of the Benghazi murders that occurred under her stewardship, that weapons and fighters equipped by the Obama administration made their way into Mali and Algeria:
{{cquote|There is no doubt that the [[Algeria]]n terrorists had weapons from Libya. There is no doubt that the [[Mali]]an remnants of AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] have weapons from Libya.<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-says-militants-used-weapons-libya-algeria-attack-154222664.html Clinton says militants used weapons from Libya in Algeria attack,] Reuters, Jan 23, 2013.</ref>}}

== See also==
*[[Ramzan Kadyrov]]

==External links==
*[http://polidics.com/cia/top-ranking-cia-operatives-admit-al-qaeda-is-a-complete-fabrication.html Top Ranking CIA Operatives Admit Al Qaeda Is a Complete Fabrication.]
*[http://www.uaff.info/alqaedatruth.htm Fake Al Qaeda] Al-Qaeda 100% Pentagon Run.
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2001/war_on_terror/default.stm BBC Profile of Al-Qaeda]
*[http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070523-115137-6054r.htm Bush shares al Qaeda plans] - Jon Ward, ''Washington Times'' - May 24, 2007
*[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331512,00.html Al Qaeda in Northern Africa Has Become Pipeline for New Iraq Recruits], Reena Ninan, ''[[Fox News Channel]]'', February 20, 2008
*[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328832,00.html Al Qaeda Trains Young Boys as Terrorists, Tapes Show],
*[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330810,00.html Purported Al Qaeda Video Shows Prisoners Burned Alive]
*[http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-taliban-and-al-qaeda/ Difference Between Taliban and Al Qaeda.]
*[http://www.rferl.org/content/Are_Theological_Tensions_Distancing_Taliban_From_Al_Qaeda/1332904.html Are Theological Tensions Distancing Taliban From Al-Qaeda?]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Turkey's Islamic leader, Israel's Chief Rabbi, and Al Qaida's assassination attempt]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Two Flags, Multiple Explosions, One God, and no Escape]

==References==
<references/>
{{Terrorism}}
[[Category:Al-Qaeda]]
[[Category:Terrorist Organizations]]
[[Category:Islam]]
[[Category:Iraq War]]
[[Category:Afghanistan War]]

Al Qaeda

2013-04-18T00:34:46Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[Image:al_qaeda.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Osama bin Laden with Al-Qaeda members]]
'''Al-Qaeda''' ([[Arabic]]: القاعدة‎, Translation: ''the base'') is an international [[Jihadism|Jihadist]] [[terrorism|terrorist]] organization founded in the late 1980s to fight the [[Red Army]] of the [[Soviet Union]] in [[Afghanistan]], during the 1980-89 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Osama bin Bin Ladin and his comrades had their own sources of support and training, and they received little or no assistance from the United States,<ref>9/11 Commission Report, [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/pdf/sec2.pdf ''The Foundation of the New Terrorism''], pg. 56.</ref> which only provided funding to indigenous Afghan ''mujaheddin'', which al-Qaeda was not. It was led by [[Osama Bin Laden]] until he was killed by Navy SEALs and CIA operatives on May 2, 2011. It is predominantly composed of fanatical [[Sunni]] [[Islam|Muslim]]s. [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]], former leader of the [[Egypt]]ian terrorist group called the [[Muslim Brotherhood|Islamic Brotherhood]], now leads Al Qaeda since Bin Laden's death. Zawahiri has increasingly become the spokesperson for the terrorist network.

==Terrorist activities from 1998 - 2008==
[[File:911rtrs 468x683.jpg|thumb|Terrorists attack the World Trade Center]]
Al Qaeda is responsible for the [[September 11, 2001 attack]]s on the [[World Trade Center]] and [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] killing 3000 Americans, the bombings of American embassies in [[Kenya]] and [[Tanzania]] in 1998, the October 2000 bombing of the [[USS Cole]], and numerous other deaths and attacks.<ref>Ramzi Yousef, who delivered the explosives in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing killing six people, is the nephew of [[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]], a top figure in al-Qaeda. After the September 2001 attack, it was the opinion of many investigators and analysts that the perpetrators of that attack had a state sponsor - Iraq. A number of details, including the fact that Yousef was travelling on an Iraqi passport, as well as the date of the 1993 attack - the second anniversary of the U.S. liberation of Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War - furthered suspicions of Iraqi involvement in the 1993 incident. His uncle, Sheikh Mohammed was one of the masterminds the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and was arrested in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on March 1, 2003. [http://intelwire.egoplex.com/2007_03_14_exclusives.html]</ref> The group's wing in Iraq, many of which came from Libya, were responsible for insurgent attacks and bombings. The 9/11 Commission Report cites Bin laden meeting with Iraqi intelligence officials in Khartoum as early as 1995. Bin Laden declined reported Iraqi offers of a safe haven, instead settling in Afghanistan. Friendly contacts between Iraqis and Bin Laden continued, though there is no evidence of an operational relationship between the two sides.

"However difficult the fight in Iraq has become, we must win it," Mr. Bush said in discussing the 2007 Iraqi troop surge during a commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. "Al Qaeda is public enemy No. 1 for Iraq's young democracy. Al Qaeda is public enemy No. 1 for America as well."<ref>http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070523-115137-6054r.htm </ref>

Some [[liberals]] seem to have a problem calling this group what it is, a terrorist organization, and prefer to use the more "politically correct" terms: ''militant organization'' and its members ''rebels''.

By 2012 al-Qaeda was fighting in the [[Syrian Civil War]] against the Syrian leader [[Bashar al-Assad]]<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/12/leader-al-qaeda-calls-on-muslims-to-help-syrian-rebels/ </ref> A group called [[Ansar Dine]], which is connected with the al-Qaeda, fight against the government in [[Mali]].<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18870130 </ref>

==Downplaying al Qaeda's significance in the early Obama era==
By late 2009 analysts were reporting a decline in the strength and appeal of Al Qaeda. Its leadership was forced to retreat to remote mountain villages in Pakistan, and many leaders had been killed by missiles and manhunts. Its tactics of killing innocent civilians were said to have lost favor with the Muslim population in some countries. During the Bush/Cheney years of 2002 and 2009 the notion that suicide bombings are "often or sometimes justified" plunged across the Islamic world. Its terrorists launched 10 major attacks worldwide in 2004 but only three by 2008. "Al Qaeda is in the process of imploding," concluded professor Audrey Kurth Cronin of the National War College in Washington. In September 2009 American-led forces killed the leader of the Somali organization "Al Shabab", which is allied with Al Qaeda; the police in Indonesia killed the most wanted terrorist in Southeast Asia. It has become much harder for terrorists to move agents, money and supplies. <ref> Scott Shane, "Rethinking What to Fear," ''New York Times'' Sept. 27, 2009</ref>

==Al Qaeda in North Africa==
:''Main article: [[Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb]]
The [[Benghazi rebellion]] started as a series of protests in eastern [[Libya]] on February 16, 2011. Ansar al-Shariah, an offshoot of Al-Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM), vowed to overthrow [[secular]] strongman [[Muammar Gaddafi]]<ref> [http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/24/al-qaeda-in-n-africa-backs-libya-uprising-site.html Al Qaeda in N. Africa backs Libya uprising: SITE] </ref><ref> [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/07/libya-uprising-live-updates Libya uprising.] </ref> and establish [[Sharia]].

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi of the U.S. organized [[Libyan Fighting Group]] said [[jihad]]ists who killed American troops in [[Iraq]] were now serving on the front lines in Libya. <ref> [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links.] </ref> <ref> [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/world/guantanamo-files-libyan-detainee-now-us-ally-of-sorts.html Libyan, Once a Detainee, Is Now a U.S. Ally of Sorts.]</ref> NATO's Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee days before President Obama publicly admitted he ordered intervention that U.S. intelligence knew al Qaeda and [[Hezbollah]] elements were among the Libyan insurgents.<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8414583/Libya-al-Qaeda-among-Libya-rebels-Nato-chief-fears.html</ref>

On March 21, 2011, [[President Obama]] announced he ordered U.S. military force operations in Libya two days earlier over the objections of his most trusted and knowledgeable experts. Secretary of Defence [[Robert Gates]] opposed the action<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20038391-503544.html</ref> as did National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, and [[White House]] counterterrorism chief [[John O. Brennan]]. Libya was not vital to American national security interests and the rebels had ties to Al Qaeda.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html?_r=2&hp]</ref> However [[Secretary of State]] [[Hillary Clinton]] "won the bureaucratic battle to use [Department of Defence] resources to achieve what's essentially the State Department's objective... and Obama let it happen". <ref>[http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/18/how_obama_turned_on_a_dime_toward_war How Obama turned on a dime toward war.] </ref> Secretary Clinton stated:
{{cquote|We are currently doing everything we can to bomb, strafe and use missiles to carry the rebels into power in Libya. We want them to win. We just don’t know who they are.” <ref>http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/06/23/hillary-clinton-to-libya-skeptics-whose-side-are-you-on/ </ref>}}

A March 29, 2011 article in the ''[[Washington Post]]'' included these paragraphs:
{{Cquote|"It’s almost a certitude that at least part” of the Libyan opposition includes members of al-Qaeda, said Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA analyst and adviser to President Obama. Riedel said that anti-Gaddafi elements in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi have had “very close associations with al-Qaeda” dating back years....I would hope that we now have a good sense of the opposition in Libya and can say that this is 2 percent, not 20 percent,” Riedel said. “If we don’t, then we are running the risk of helping to bring to power a regime that could be very dangerous.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/libyan-opposition-includes-a-small-number-of-al-qaeda-fighters-us-officials-say/2011/03/29/AFRlXWyB_story.html</ref>}}

A document published by the U.S. [[West Point]] Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center revealed that jihadi rebels between 2005 and 2007 exited Libya to join the [[Operation_Iraqi_Freedom#Insurgency|Islamic insurgency]] in Iraq in greater numbers than any other country.<ref>[http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony/pdf/CTCForeignFighter.19.Dec07.pdf A First Look at the Sinjar Documents]</ref><ref> The Sinjar Documents are a collection of al Qaeda computer data captured by Americans in 2007 in a predawn raid near Sinjar, Iraq, six miles from the Syrian border.</ref> Many of those jihadi rebels that came from Libya to Iraq to kill American soldiers came from among the very people Obama pledged to protect in the name of "humanitarianism". One group—the Libyan Fighting Group (''jamaʹah al‐libiyah al‐muqatilah'')—claimed to have [[War on Terror|Afghan]] veterans in its ranks. The Combating Terrorism Center document concludes,
{{Cquote|The [[Syria]]n [ [[Bashar al-Assad|Assad]] regime] and Libyan [Gaddafi] governments share the United States’ concerns about violent salafi‐jihadi ideology and the violence perpetrated by its adherents. These governments [Syria, Gaddafi, and the US] like others in the Middle East, fear violence inside their borders and would much rather radical elements go to Iraq rather than cause unrest at home. U.S. and Coalition efforts to stem the flow of fighters into Iraq will be enhanced if they address the entire logistical chain that supports the movement of these individuals—beginning in their home countries – rather than just their Syrian entry points.}}

This set off a fierce debate in the [[Obama administration]] over the wisdom of arming terrorists.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/world/africa/30diplo.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss</ref> It is now known sometime prior to March 31, 2011,<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/world/africa/31intel.html?_r=2&hp</ref> at the urging of Hillary Clinton and over the objections of his National Security Council, Obama signed a Presidential Finding authorizing support for the rebel jihadis.<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/us-libya-usa-order-idUSTRE72T6H220110330</ref>

===Ghaddafi's murder and Sharia law installed===
By October 2011, Libyan rebel fighting groups with support from [[NATO]], overtook the capital of Tripoli and toppled the government. Ghaddafi was captured and brutally and sadistically murdered.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPzeLLL9V-c Leading from behind - a critique of Obama foreign policy]</ref> The jihadis were immediately recognized by the U.S. and the U.N. as the legitimate government. Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, announced that [[Sharia]] will be the source for all legislation in Libya and that all laws conflicting with Sharia are null and void.<ref name="Sharia">[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8861608/Libya-Al-Qaeda-flag-flown-above-Benghazi-courthouse.html Libya: Al Qaeda flag flown above Benghazi courthouse - Daily Telegraph]</ref> Abdel Rahim al-Kib, the country's interim prime minister, echoed Jalil's words a couple of days later.<ref>[http://www.presstv.ir/detail/207953.html New Libyan PM backs Islamic sharia law]</ref> Around the same time these statements were made an Al Qaeda flag was flown above the Benghazi courthouse, and reports were surfacing that the Libyan jihadis imposed Sharia law in some parts of the country even earlier.<ref name="Sharia" />

U.S. intelligence says as many as 20,000 advanced Russian surface-to-air missiles were missing.<ref>[http://weaselzippers.us/2011/09/27/u-s-intelligence-now-says-up-to-20000-advanced-surface-to-air-missiles-mussing-from-libya/ U.S. Intelligence Now Says Up To 20,000 Advanced Surface-To-Air Missiles Missing From Lib, Weasel Zippers, September 27, 2011]</ref> Some of those missiles reached the hands of [[Hamas]] in the Gaza Strip.<ref>[http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hamas-boosting-anti-aircraft-arsenal-with-looted-libyan-missiles-1.392186 Hamas boosting anti-aircraft arsenal with looted Libyan missiles - Haaretz]</ref>

===American Ambassador murdered===
:{{main|Benghazi Attack}}
With several U.S.embassies besieged on the anniversary of the [[September 11 attacks]], White House Press Secretary [[Jay Carney]] declared authorities had no reason to believe the attack on the sovereign territory of the United States consulate in Benghazi less than two months before the [[2012 Presidential election]], resulting in the deaths of several Americans, was a terrorist attack.
{{Cquote|The unrest that we’ve seen around the region has been in reaction to a video that Muslims, many Muslims, find offensive.}}
This became the official White House line. President Obama went on the ''Comedy Channel'' to say the deaths of Americans was "not optimal".<ref>[http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/18/Obama-Benghazi-murders-not-optimal Interview with Jon Stewart of the ''Daily Show''].</ref> When pressed by reporters, who pointed out evidence that the violence in Benghazi was a terrorist attack, Press Secretary Carney argued “the unrest around the region has been in response to this video.”

Leading suspected jihadis in the murders and terrorist attack were the local Benghazi branch of Ansar al-Shariah, known to have ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.<ref>http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/10/19/when-an-obama-adviser-called-benghazi-an-al-qaeda-hotbed/?cxntfid=blogs_political_insider_jim_galloway</ref> A commander of the terrorist group boasted jovially about the attack over drinks with reporters for the ''[[New York Times]]'' in Benghazi<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/world/africa/election-year-stakes-overshadow-nuances-of-benghazi-investigation.html?pagewanted=2&ref=world</ref>.<ref>http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/frappe-libya-attack/</ref>

===Algeria and Mali===
Two more Americans were killed, along with 35 others, after being taken hostage by rebel jihadists in Mali shortly after the Libyan upheaval.<ref>[http://world.time.com/2013/01/21/algeria-37-foreigner-hostages-killed-in-attack/ Algeria: 37 Foreigner Hostages Killed in Attack], Associated Press, Jan. 21, 2013. ''[[TIME magazine]].</ref>

Hillary Clinton testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the wake of the Benghazi murders that occurred under her stewardship, that weapons and fighters equipped by the Obama administration made their way into Mali and Algeria:
{{cquote|There is no doubt that the [[Algeria]]n terrorists had weapons from Libya. There is no doubt that the [[Mali]]an remnants of AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] have weapons from Libya.<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-says-militants-used-weapons-libya-algeria-attack-154222664.html Clinton says militants used weapons from Libya in Algeria attack,] Reuters, Jan 23, 2013.</ref>}}

== See also==
*[[Ramzan Kadyrov]]

==External links==
*[http://polidics.com/cia/top-ranking-cia-operatives-admit-al-qaeda-is-a-complete-fabrication.html Top Ranking CIA Operatives Admit Al Qaeda Is a Complete Fabrication.]
*[http://www.uaff.info/alqaedatruth.htm Fake Al Qaeda] Al-Qaeda 100% Pentagon Run.
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2001/war_on_terror/default.stm BBC Profile of Al-Qaeda]
*[http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070523-115137-6054r.htm Bush shares al Qaeda plans] - Jon Ward, ''Washington Times'' - May 24, 2007
*[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331512,00.html Al Qaeda in Northern Africa Has Become Pipeline for New Iraq Recruits], Reena Ninan, ''[[Fox News Channel]]'', February 20, 2008
*[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328832,00.html Al Qaeda Trains Young Boys as Terrorists, Tapes Show],
*[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330810,00.html Purported Al Qaeda Video Shows Prisoners Burned Alive]
*[http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-taliban-and-al-qaeda/ Difference Between Taliban and Al Qaeda.]
*[http://www.rferl.org/content/Are_Theological_Tensions_Distancing_Taliban_From_Al_Qaeda/1332904.html Are Theological Tensions Distancing Taliban From Al-Qaeda?]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Turkey's Islamic leader, Israel's Chief Rabbi, and Al Qaida's assassination attempt]

==References==
<references/>
{{Terrorism}}
[[Category:Al-Qaeda]]
[[Category:Terrorist Organizations]]
[[Category:Islam]]
[[Category:Iraq War]]
[[Category:Afghanistan War]]

Koran

2013-04-15T18:24:06Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[Image:Opened Qur'an.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A copy of the Koran opened for study.]]
'''The Koran''' also called the '''Qur'an''' ('''القرآن''' in [[Arabic]]), is a scripture considered sacred by [[Islam]].

The Koran is claimed by [[Muslims]] to have been revealed to the Prophet [[Muhammad]] over a number of years in the 7th century AD, purportedly through the [[angel]] [[Gabriel]]. The scripture is organized (roughly) according to the length of the chapters. There are 114 suras (or chapters), with many of the later and more warlike ones appearing near the beginning. The Prophet's first revelations were received in [[Mecca]]. He was exiled from Mecca after commanding the people to repent of [[polytheism]] and join the One True God, (in [[Arabic]], his name is [[Allah]]). The Prophet Muhammad then travelled to [[Medina]] and converted the entire city. He led them to a victory over the polytheists at Mecca.

The verses are of two kinds: Meccan and Medinan. Meccan verses are characterized by praise of a monotheistic God and condemnation of polytheism. Medinan verses reflect divine laws and commandments that would help Muhammad in his new role as a leader of men; that is to say, the verses are concerned more with the social laws and obligations of Muslims.

The Koran has influenced a great number of people over the centuries, especially in the [[Middle East]]. (A link to the text of the Qur'an and translations can be found below.)

Several commentaries on the Qur'an exist. These are labelled as "tafsir" (the word for "commentary.") Allah himself is regarded as the greatest Tafsir. Muhammad is the second-best (his tafsir is called "[[hadith]]," the Words of the Prophet). The Companions of the Prophet also produced their own tafsirs. It is important to note that "tafsir" is ''not'' scripture; it is a companion to understanding scripture.

It is also important to note that Muhammad is not worshiped as a God. The Muslims are [[monotheistic]]. The Koran states that God has no equals, nor was he begotten by a greater being, ''nor has he begotten any other being.'' Muslims may occasionally view [[Jesus]] and the [[Holy Spirit]] as infringing on God's divinity. The Christian doctrine of the [[Holy Trinity]] is regarded as tantamount to polytheism by Muslims.

 
==Translation==
The Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet [[Muhammad]] in what the Angel said was "clear Arabic." This has come to mean (for many reasons) that Arabic is the most beautiful language of all. The Qur'an also contains a challenge: if you do not believe that the Qur'an is the word of God, try to make something just as beautiful and good as it! This is the doctrine of inimitability (no copy can be made), or "i'jaz." These two doctrines, along with the inherent difficulty of translation, severely limit the value of translations of the Qur'an. In other words, the only Qur'an is the Arabic Qur'an. English versions of the Qur'an are regarded as commentaries.

Two of the most famous and widely-read English translations of the Qur'an are those by A. Yusuf Ali and M. Marmaduke Pickthall <ref>http://www.wokingmuslim.org/pers/pickthall/conversion.htm</ref> (and see links below).

==Sources==
Scholars and theologians have identified six main sources for the contents of the Qur'an. ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' states: "The sources of the Koran be reduced to -

*The [[Old Testament]] (canonical and apocryphal) and the hybrid [[Judaism]] of the late rabbinical schools. During Mohammed's time the Jews were numerous in many parts of Arabia, especially around Medina. Familiarity with them is undoubtedly responsible for many Old Testament stories alluded to in Qur'an. Later Judaism and Rabbinism are equally well represented (Geiger, "Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthum aufgenommen?", Wiesbaden, 1833; tr. "Judaism and Islam", Madras, 1898).
*The [[New Testament]] (canonical and apocryphal) and various heretical doctrines. On his journeys between Syria, Hijaz, and Yemen, Mohammed had every opportunity to come in close touch with Yemenite, Abyssinian, Ghassanite, and Syrian [[Christianity|Christians]], especially heretics. Hence, while the influence of orthodox Christianity upon the Qur'an has been slight, apocryphal and heretical Christian legends, on the other hand, are one of the original sources of Koranic faith. (See Muir, op. cit. infra, 66-239; Tisdall, "The Original Sources of the Qur'an", London, 1905, 55-211.)
*[[Sabaism]], a combination of Judaism, [[Manicheism]], and old disfigured Babylonian [[heathen]]ism.
*[[Zoroastrianism]]. On account of Persia's political influence in the north-eastern part of Arabia, it is natural to find Zoroastrian elements in the Qur'an.
*[[Hanifism]], the adherents of which, called Hanifs, must have been considerable in number and influence, as it is known from contemporary Arabian sources that twelve of Mohammed's followers were members of this sect.
*Native ancient and contemporary Arabian heathen beliefs and practices. Wellhausen has collected in his "Reste des arabischen Heidentums" (Berlin, 1897) all that is known of pre-Islamic Arabian heathen belief, traditions, customs, and superstitions, many of which are either alluded to or accepted and incorporated in the Koran. From the various sects and creeds, and Abul-Fida, the well-known historian and geographer of the twelfth century, it is clear that religious beliefs and practices of the Arabs of Mohammed's day form one of the many sources of Islam. From this heathen source Islam derived the practices of [[polygamy]] and [[slavery]], which Mohammed sanctioned by adopting them."<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08692a.htm Koran], by Gabriel Oussani, ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''</ref>

===Dependence upon the Bible===
The Qur'an manifests that it depends upon the Bible for much of its content, and that the Bible was preserved by God. "The Koran its hearers as though they are already familiar with the stories of the great biblical figures, commenting on them without retelling the narrative...It has often been noted that these figures are presented in the Koran with little of the detail and few of the distinguishing characteristics found in the biblical narratives.<ref>Science Encyclopedia, Sacred Texts - Koran - The Koran And Previous Scriptures</ref>

==The Bible versus the Qur'an==

At less than 80,000 words, (figures vary: 77,701 in Arabic by one source,<ref>http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Uk/uk.religion.islam/2005-09/msg01868.html</ref> 77,439 by ‘Ata bin Yasar<ref>http://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Menj/bravo_r4bc.htm</ref>) the Qur'an is much smaller than the Bible, (602,585 words in the Old Testament; 180,552 in the New = 783,037,<ref> http://muthbible.org/resources/bible/biblestatistics.php</ref> with the [[KJV]] being counted at 788,258 words total.<ref>http://www.biblebelievers.com/believers-org/kjv-stats.htm</ref>) The Qur'an is also far more restrictive in in its scope of communication, lacking the manner of extensive historical narratives of the Bible, and the context it provides for its commands, as well as genealogical records which helps provide historical chronology. In addition, absent from the Qur'an are extended doctrinal discourses on salvation, such as are especially seen in the New Testament. This results in difficultly formulating extensive [[systematic theology]] out of the Qur'an by itself, and in its allusions to Biblical characters and events evidences that it requires knowledge of the Bible, which as the prior revelation, it must agree with. Muhammed himself is seen to uphold the Scriptures<ref>http://isaalmasih.net/bible-isa/kitab-true.html</ref> that existed then as divinely inspired, both the Torah, (Sura 2:87) and the Psalms, (4:163) and the Gospels, (Suras 3:3; 5:46) such as in stating,

<blockquote>If thou wert in doubt as to what We have revealed unto thee, then ask those who have been reading the Book from before thee: the Truth hath indeed come to thee from thy Lord: so be in no wise of those in doubt. 10:94 (Y. Ali)</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Say: "O People of the Book! ye have no ground to stand upon unless ye stand fast by the Law, the Gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord, (Sura 5:68; Y. Ali) and
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
And dispute ye not with the People of the Book, except with means better (than mere disputation), unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong (and injury): but say, "We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; Our Allah and your Allah is one; and it is to Him we bow (in Islam). (Sura 29:46; Y. Ali)
</blockquote>

Sura 6:34 also states that "there is none that can alter the words (and decrees) of Allah."

However, the Qur'an critically contradicts the Bible,<ref>[http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/ answering-islam.org; ''Contradictions in the Qur'an'']</ref> especially as concerns the person and work of [[Jesus Christ]], as it flatly denies His death and resurrection, as well as His Divine nature, both of which which are held by Christians to be abundantly testified to.<ref>[http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/JESUS.Vs.Muhammad.html MUHAMMAD VERSUS JESUS CHRIST]</ref><ref> [http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/DEITYofCHRIST.html The DEITY of CHRIST]</ref>

Islamic apologists recognize these contradictions, and therefore charge that the Bible was tampered with, though the amount of alterations required to explain the Quranic deviations from Biblical text would require a radical amount of rewriting, especially of the latter.

Christian apologists respond to these charges by evidencing that an abundance of manuscripts which predate the Quran yet exist,<ref>http://www.spotlights.org/Bible22.htm</ref> such as the Codex Sinaiticus (c. 350 AD), with Aland numbering a total of 230 extant New Testament manuscript portions which pre-date 600 AD (192 Greek New Testament manuscripts, 5 Greek lectionaries containing scripture, and 33 translations of the Greek New Testament).<ref>Kurt and Barbara Aland, 1987:82-83</ref><ref>http://debate.org.uk/topics/history/bib-qur/bibmanu.htm</ref> The doctrinal conflation of these with later manuscripts manifest that the alleged rewriting did not take place.<ref>http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/bibleorigin.html</ref><ref>http://www.carm.org/questions/about-bible/manuscript-evidence-superior-new-testament-reliability</ref>

In addition, it is postulated that if Muhammed could not read, as Islam states, then he would have relied upon the word of others (travelers, etc.) who were overall likely to be significantly Biblically illiterate.<ref>http://www.letusreason.org/Islam5.htm</ref> This would explain how Muhammed could reprove such things as the Christian Trinity consisting of God, Jesus and Mary,<ref>[http://answering-islam.org/Why-not/13trinity.html Jochen Katz, ''My Questions to Muslims''; Answering Islam]</ref> (Sura 5:116-117) in addition to speaking numerous contradictions of the Bible.

In response, Muslim apologists seek to make a case against a reliable Bible based upon the lack of a universal canon among all Christian churches, or early incomplete manuscripts, or additions to them (''the Epistle of Barnabas'', and portions of ''The Shepherd of Hermas'' to Codex Sinaiticus), as well as evidence of a relatively small degree of actual (beyond spelling, etc.) textual disagreement among some of the thousands of existing manuscripts. However, none of these aspects provides a solution to the Islamic problem, as none of the manuscripts substantiates the Qur'anic deviations, nor does the small percentage (contrary to typical Muslim exaggeration) of actual variants among manuscripts support the manner of massive changes which the Islamic solution requires. In addition, the Qur'an has its own problematic texts,<ref>http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/islam/contradictions-quran</ref> even though it is a far smaller (in size and scope) book, and one that was written after durable writing materials came into use, and then underwent a purification process in which variant manuscripts were burned.<ref>[http://www.beholdthebeast.com/textual_history_of_the_koran.htm TEXTUAL HISTORY OF THE KORAN]</ref> Thus it is seen that the manner of corruption of biblical text which Islam charges is that of the Qur'an, not the Bible which it is largely based upon.

While Muslims also typically claim that the text of the Qur'an is identical to that received by Muhammad. Christian researchers contend that there is overwhelming evidence that it is not. <ref>[http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Text/ Textual answering-islam.org; ''Variants of the Qur'an'']</ref>

As no extant Biblical manuscript, from before the time of Muhammed or after him, agrees with the Quranic contradictions, many Muslim apologists look to the [[Gospel of Barnabas]] for support. However, this radically different account is judged by both Christian and secular academics, (and some Muslims such as Abbas el-Akkad), as a late work and pseudepigraphical. With its obvious anachronisms and historical errors (like sailing to Nazareth) and utter lack of early manuscript evidence and irreconcilable differences between it and any ancient manuscripts, it is seen as a fourteenth century attempt to read later Islamic doctrine into the Bible, which clearly refutes it.<ref>http://www.muslimhope.com/ForgeryOfTheGospelOfBarnabas.htm</ref> <ref>http://answering-islam.org/Barnabas/saleeb.html</ref> <ref>http://www.answering-islam.org/Green/barnabas.htm</ref> <ref>http://www.ichthus.info/CaseForChrist/Archeology/intro.html </ref> ''For more information, see [[The Bible versus the Qur'an]]''

==Verses of Violence==
The Qur'an contains scores of verses exhorting Muslims to engage in violence against non - Muslims:

*"I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore '''strike off their heads''' and '''strike off every fingertip of them'''" (Sura 8 verse 12). <ref>http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/023-violence.htm</ref>

*"Say to the Unbelievers, if (now) they desist (from Unbelief), their past would be forgiven them; but if they persist, the punishment of those before them is already (a matter of warning for them). And '''fight them''' on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there '''prevail justice and faith in Allah''' altogether and everywhere; but if they cease, verily Allah doth see all that they do" (8:38,39)<ref>http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/008.qmt.html#008.038</ref>.

*"So when the sacred months have passed away, then '''slay the idolaters wherever you find them''', and '''take them captives''' and '''besiege them''' and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them" (Koran 9:5).<ref>http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/023-violence.htm</ref>.

*"The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!" (9:30) <ref>http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.030</ref>.

*"Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority" (Sura 3 verse 151).<ref>http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/023-violence.htm</ref> This verse commands violence against Christians, who according to Mohammed 'joined Companions with Allah' and are thus infidels who must be killed, subjugated, or converted according to the Koran.

Christians see such commands and exhortations are being contrary to the teaching of the Bible, as in the [[Old Testament]] ordained violence was limited to a specific area and people, (Dt. 7:1; Ex. 17:16) while under the [New Testament the church did not, in doctrine or in practice, seek to physically rule over those without: (1Cor. 5:12,13), nor use physical violence against them, or in disciplining its members, (Jn. 18:36; Eph. 6:12; 2Cor. 6:1-10; 10:3,4) as it must depend upon spiritual power. The New Testament does however, uphold the just use of the ''sword'' by the established civil powers. (Rm. 14:1-7;2Pet. 2:13,14) Rather than the use of religious violence being a characteristic of Christian groups that take the Bible to be their ultimate authority, more often such go to what some consider extremes of pacifism, while the use of physical violence by a church to subdue spiritual enemies, or to enlarge its reign, is seen by many to be the result of a man or organization being exalted above the Bible.<ref>[http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/JESUS.Vs.Muhammad.html#4 The New Covenant means of warfare]</ref>

==Treatment of Christians and Jews==
In several verses, the Qur'an advocates Muslim tolerance and peaceful coexistence with Christians and Jews. The Qur'an refers to Christians and Jews as "'Ahl al-Kitab", which translates to "people of the book." The Qur'an acknowledges that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the same god ([[Allah]] is one and the same with [[YHWH]]) and derive their beliefs from the same Abrahamic tradition.

"Those who believe, those who follow the Jewish, the Christian, and the Sabian scriptures--any who believe in [[Allah]] and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with the Lord." (Qur'an, 2:062)

"Argue not with people of the book. Except by what is best, except those of them who act unjustly." (Qur'an, 29:046)

"There are those people of the book who believe in God...humbling themselves before God...for them is a reward with the Lord..." (Qur'an, 3:199)

== See also ==

*[[Arab American]]
*[[Jihad]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://tanzil.info/ Tanzil Quran Navigator (searchable Quran and 41 translations)]
*[http://www.islam101.com/quran/yusufAli/ Ali English translation]
*[http://www.islam101.com/quran/QTP/index.htm Pickthall English translation]
*[http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Fisher/Topical/index.htm#contents A Topical Study of the Qur'an, From a Christian Perspective, M. J. Fisher]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Turkey's Islamic scholar, Rabbi Meir Lau, and Cain speechless before Abel]

[[Category:Religious Texts]]
[[Category:Islam]]

Islam

2013-04-15T18:20:35Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[File:Madina Haram at evening .jpg|center|800px|thumb|Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Mosque of the Prophet) in [[Medina]], [[Saudi Arabia]], the site of [[Muhammad|Muhammad's]] tomb.]]

'''Islam''' is a [[monotheism|monotheistic]] [[Abrahamic religion]] based on the teachings of [[Muhammad]] (or often [[Mohammed]] and other variants), a seventh century [[Arab]] who, according to Muslim belief, was an agent of divine action. Muhammad also claimed birth to the descendents of Abraham. Muhammed claimed to have received revelations from Allah via the archangel Gabriel, which were written in the [[Qur'an]] ([[Koran]]) - thus forming the core teachings of Islam.

==Overview==
The word "Islam" means "submission" (to [[Allah]]) in [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. Islam as originally designed in the Qur'an presents itself as an Abrahamic faith and has [[Moses]] in it<ref>Brannon Wheeler. Moses in the Qur'an and Islamic Exegesis. Routledge, 2002.</ref> as well as [[Jesus]] as a prophet in Islam,<ref>Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim, Ahmad Thomson. Jesus: Prophet of Islam. TTQ, INC., 2003.</ref> but not as God's son. Islam has been criticized for some time, due to its demanding of strict submissiveness especially of women, and its predisposition to being violent suspicious of other faiths and attacking other faiths deemed a threat to Islam, as a result there have been over 20,000 terrorist attacks committed by extremist Muslims since 2001.<ref>http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/</ref> A more recent strain of Islam has combined European totalitarianism and a virulent anti-Semiticism. This version is called [[Jihadism]], [[Islamism]], radical Islam or militant Islam. Without the historic institution of the Caliph, this form degenerates into terrorist stateless activity that strikes at the heart of civilized man. Moderate Muslims have denounced the Jihadist terrorists and believe that mainstream Islam has become corrupted over the years that there needs to be an [[Islamic Reformation]] similar to that of the [[Protestant Reformation]].<ref>Michaelle Browers, Charles Kurzman. An Islamic Reformation? Lexington Books, 2004.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.danielpipes.org/954/distinguishing-between-islam-and-islamism|title=Distinguishing between Islam and Islamism|author=Daniel Pipes|date=June 30, 1998}}</ref>

There are small groups of largely Westernized Muslims who publicly reject Islamism. Such moderate Muslim conservatives are in the [[Republican Party]], known as the [[Muslim Republicans]].<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref> One of America's Founding Fathers, [[Thomas Jefferson]], who was a religious [[libertarian]], declared: "''freedom for the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindu and infidel of every denomination''."<ref>John A. Garraty, Story of America Beginnings to 1877, (1992) Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pg 706.</ref>

Issues of Islam have arisen in the 2012 US Presidential campaign. Republican Presidential candidate [[Mitt Romney]] has said that: "''Radical, violent Islamists pose a threat to Americans and others around the world.''" and that "''they take a very different view of Islam than the Muslims I know.''" Romney has said that when he lived in Detroit he knew Muslims, as Detroit has a large Muslim population, and says "''They are peace-loving and America-loving individuals. I believe that very sincerely. I believe people of the Islamic faith do not have to subscribe to the idea of radical, violent jihadism.''<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref> Former Republican presidential nominee candidate [[Ron Paul]], a libertarian conservative, says that America should not fear Islam and said that America should just embrace people of all faiths.<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref> American conservative author Margaret Hoover believes that the Republican Party needs to recognize Muslim Republicans, noting an example of Muslim Republican youth Suhail Khan who she describes as "''one of thousands of Muslim Americans who work to promote Christian-Muslim understanding''".<ref>Margaret Hoover, ''American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party'', Random House Digital, Inc., 2011, pg 202.</ref> Candidates for the Republican nomination like [[Newt Gingrich]] and [[Rick Santorum]] strongly criticized Islamic extremism.<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref>

[[Multiculturalism|Multiculturalists]] ignore or minimize violence in the history of Islam and exaggerate Christian atrocities to advance a [[moral equivalence]]. Proponents of this view often cite the [[Crusades|Great Crusades]]--an unsuccessful attempt by Western Christians to retake parts of the [[Byzantine Empire]] that had been conquered by Islamic armies--and various religious wars which were later fought in Europe between branches of Christianity. However, they brand critics of Islamism “racists” and “[[Islamophobia|Islamophobes]]” for exposing today’s threats by [[jihadism|jihadists]].<ref>http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/charity.html</ref>

A follower of Islam is called a "[[Muslim]]" or "Moslem", a term which means "one who submits (to Allah)". The older terms "Mohammedan" and "Muhammedan" ("follower of Muhammad"), have fallen out of use.<ref> Additional archaic terms for Muslims include "Hagarene", and "Saracen". Saracen as a term for Muslims was limited to the Crusade era, although it makes frequent re-appearances in pre-modern polemics. Hagarene was a more common term in pre-modern works, as it denotes the biblical connection of Hagar the mother of Ishmael who is reported as the patriarch of Islam. Additional names for Muslims in pre-modern and Medieval works are generally derived from misspellings.</ref>

==Theology==
There are no clergy, but there are religious teachers, or [[Imam]]s, who have their followings. All Muslims are supposed to follow the teachings of Muhammad, whom they believe to be Allah's ('''الله''' in [[Arabic]]) last and greatest [[prophet]]. The teachings of Muhammad are transmitted through the [[Qur'an]], the Hadith, and the Sunnah. The Sunnah is a general term for "the life and doings of the Prophet", which all Muslims are called on to replicate. The faith teaches that the Archangel [[Gabriel]] appeared to Muhammad in a cave reciting verbatim a revelation from Allah. The first word that Gabriel says to Muhammad is "Iqra" or "Recite/Proclaim",which is found in the 96th Sura of the Qur'an.

Muslims believe that God revealed the Qur'an (or Koran) to Muhammad. The key miracle of Islam comes from the historical condition of the illiterate and uneducated Muhammad, as the Qur'an is composed in an erudite and complex form of Arabic prose and poetry<ref>Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created- Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,- He Who taught (the use of) the pen,- Taught man that which he knew not.(Surah 96:1-5)</ref>. The Qur'an was not written down in a systematic fashion until a decade after Muhammad died, preferable transmission being through oral recitation. The Qur'an is considered by muslims to be the pure and holy word of God, uncreated and eternal. In Islamic theology the term uncreated is very important, as it implies that there is no author for the Qur'an, only the delivering of the word to Muhammad who delivered it to the Sahab and the Salaf (The Companions and the Pure), who delivered it to the scribe delegated to record it in the reign of the Caliph Uthman bin Affan.

==Origins==
Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam originated in the Middle East. Islam claims to trace its roots back to Abraham through his son Ishmael. Muslims do not believe that Muhammad was the founder of Islam, rather that he restored the original faith of Abraham and the prophets that followed as recorded in the lost books of the Tawrat and Injil.

Based upon this belief, the [[Bible]], both the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]]s, is believed to have become corrupted through the [[Bible translations|translations and misinterpretations]] accumulated over several millenia. The criticism of the [[Torah]] centers around the reconstruction of the existing Biblical text required after the "[[Babylon]]ian captivity". The criticism of the New Testament centers in the many disputed gnostic texts which contradict the orthodox biblical canon. Interestingly, Islamic jurisprudence accepts that the Injil was complete and whole up until the revelation of Muhammad. Therefore there is some inconsistency in the claims made against the New Testament. For more information, see [[The Bible versus the Qur'an]].
[[Image:Mecca.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Mecca]], one of the holy cities of Islam.]]

==Today==
Islam is the worlds second largest religion, with over 1.6 billion followers, the number of Muslims is rapidly growing, mainly due to conversions, high birth rates, and redefinitions of the term 'Muslim'. Conversions to Christianity (from ''any'' faith or lack thereof) outnumber those to Islam, but cannot keep up with the birthrate discrepancy.<ref>[http://www.bible.ca/global-religion-statistics-world-christian-encyclopedia.htm World Christian Encyclopedia]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles6/AlJazeerahAfrica.php Translation of AL-Jazeerah interview between Maher Abdallah and Shiekh Ahmed Katani]</ref>

[[Indonesia]] has the largest Muslim population in the world.

==Historical Background==

According to Islamic belief, in approximately 610 A.D., [[Muhammad]], a 40-year-old merchant of the Quraysh tribe in [[Mecca]], located in the Hijaz (now eastern [[Saudi Arabia]]), was commanded by the angel [[Gabriel]] (or Jibreel) to "recite" the message of Allah (The Muslim god). Gabriel said mankind had lost sight of Allah's previous messages to earlier prophets, [[Adam]], [[Noah]], [[Abraham]], [[Moses]], [[Solomon]], and [[Jesus]], among others, and that Muhammad was to spread Allah's message to all people so that mankind would know how to live, how to show respect for Allah, and how to prepare for the judgment day.

The message to Muhammad was to be God's last and fullest revelation, a direct copy of the Umm Al Khitab, the mother of all books located in heaven next to God; Muhammad was the "seal of the prophets." Muhammad won some converts to Islam in his local area, but his [[monotheist]] preaching threatened to undermine the profitable [[polytheist]] pilgrim traffic supporting many Meccan merchants. In 622 A.D., the merchants drove Muhammad and his followers out of Mecca to the city of Yathrib (later renamed [[Medina]], or the city - as in the city of the prophet). This flight (hijra) from Mecca to Medina marks the beginning of the Muslim lunar calendar, and is celebrated each year in the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Muhammad's forces, composed of the sahaba (companions) from Mecca ,and the Ansar (allied tribes from Yathrib) started attacking the trade caravans going in and out of Mecca, cutting off its economic lifeline. After a series of battles between the Meccans and Muhammad's forces, Mecca finally accepted Muhammad's ultimatum to succumb and convert to Islam. The city welcomed the prophet back in 630. Muhammad died in 632.
[[File:Islam750.jpg|thumb|590px]]

Tribal elders in a traditional council called the "Shura" elected [[Abu Bakr]] to be Muhammad's successor, or [[Caliph]] (Khalifa). Abu Bakr united the tribes of the Arabian peninsula during his two years as head of the new faith. Upon his death, the elders elected [[Umar ibn al-Khattab]] the next Caliph. During Umar's ten year reign, Islam invaded and spread through conquest and negotiation into [[Egypt]], [[Syria]], [[Palestine]], [[Iraq]], and parts of [[Iran]]. Umar was assassinated by a Persian (modern day Iran) in 644, and was succeeded by [[Uthman ibn Affan]], who continued the invasions to spread Islam into [[North Africa]], [[Cyprus]], the rest of Iran, [[Afghanistan]], and parts of [[India]] and [[Pakistan]]. Over the next two centuries, Islamic armies continued to expanded Islam's empire into sub-Saharan Africa, [[Spain]], South-east and Central Asia, and [[Turkey]].

The Muslim armies conquered and superseded the ancient Sassanid and Byzantine empires which had ruled before. Within a generation of Muhammad's death Muslim armies occupied an empire stretching from the Nile river to the far off Iranian province of khorasan. Reasons for the rapid conquest are varied and obscure. The Arab armies were more akin to tribal war bands raiding and settling where and when they could. The Byzantine and Sassanid empires had been at war for centuries. The constant simmering conflict between Constantinople and Persia reached a climax in the early 7th century. The Sassanids conquered briefly Egypt and the Levant threatening the central Byzantine heartland of Anatolia. Under the military reforms of the emperor Heraclius, the Byzantine army consolidated and counter attacked, recapturing all that they had lost and capturing the Sassanian capital of Ctesiphon in 628.

This brief end of the Roman-Persian wars disrupted the frontier areas which had predicated their economies on raiding and mercenary activities. Two major areas in Arabia were directly affected. The Lackmid tribe and the Gassanid tribe both acted as mercenaries for the Persians and Romans. The official religion of both tribes analogically mirrored that of their overseers. Monophysite Christianity was common, particularly of the Jacobite sect. The death of Muhammad and the subsequent Ridda wars occupied these warrior tribes until the reign of Caliph Umar. Additionally, there was great religious unrest in the levant and Egypt. These areas resented the ruinous taxes and the harsh orthodoxy imposed by the emperor in Constantinople.

The same climate was present in the Sassanid realm with the rise of the dualism of the Manicheans. Under the Caliph Umar ,the Arab tribes which had concluded the infighting following the death of Muhammad were allowed to raid into the Byzantine and Sassanid fronteirs. The weakened state of both regimes from both military and economic exhaustion and religious unrest made them fertile picking grounds for the tribal warbands. The Arabs were chiefly successful in holding these areas in that they upheld a lightweight regime of low taxes based in the Islamic laws and distant government. Rather than employing an army of bureaucrats and nobility, the early Arab empire was more favorable towards maintaining the existing government structures under the leadership of Arab tribes. In this atmosphere it is hardly surprising to note the reports from both Muslim and Christian sources of peaceful capitulation and invitation of the invading forces.

==Divisions Within Islam==
Uthman was assassinated in 656 A.D. by soldiers who then installed Ali ibn Abu Talib, Muhammad's son-in-law, as [[Caliph]]. Ali's followers believed Muhammad had chosen Ali to be Muhammad's heir, and had disagreed with the selections of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman as Caliphs. Ali's claim to the position was challenged by Muawiyah, a kinsman of the murdered Uthman. Five years later, Ali was assassinated by Kharjites, religious dissidents who broke away from the main body of Muslims because they rejected Ali's accepting arbitration to resolve his leadership dispute with Muawiyah. Ali's supporters, or the Shiah al-Ali (or Shiat Ali, partisans of Ali) believed that Ali was the true Caliph and was, in part, divinely inspired. Ali's sons, Hassan and Husayn followed as [[Shia]] Caliphs, Hassan dying in 669 or 670 A.D., possibly by poisoning, and Husayn slain by soldiers of his rival, the [[Sunni]] Caliph Yazid, in 680 A.D.

The Shia Muslim community has divided further as followers coalesced around several of Ali's descendants or successors, called [[Imam]]s. The "twelvers," predominant in Iran, believe the twelfth Imam is in hiding and will reveal himself just before judgement day. Ismailis rejected the seventh Imam and practice a spirituality that seeks hidden meaning in scripture. Ismailis ruled much of [[North Africa]] as the [[Fatimid Dynasty]] of [[Egypt]] in the tenth through the twelfth centuries, and today are found primarily in [[Pakistan]], [[Afghanistan]], and [[India]]. The Sunni majority reject the premise that men can be divine, including Muhammad, Ali, or Jesus, and did not accept any of the Imams who followed Ali. Sunnis remain more committed to traditions and less inclined to accept Shia mysticism. Today, about 15% of the world's Muslims are Shia and 85% are orthodox Sunni.

There are other factions within Islam. Sufis, a name possibly derived from the wool garments they wear, developed around mystical practices and trance-induced revelations. Sufis are found today in [[Turkey]], [[Syria]], and parts of [[Africa]]. Other movements have taken reform tracks, such as the Unitarians of [[Saudi Arabia]], also called [[Wahhabi]]s after their 18th century reformist founder Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The conservative Wahhabis are found today in Saudi Arabia and [[Qatar]]. Today the Wahhabi line has a tendency to produce extremists, such as [[Osama Bin Laden]]. Some critics would argue that the [[Taliban]] of Afghanistan took conservative reform to an extreme. Other sects or break-away groups include, among others, the Alawis found in Syria and Turkey, the [[Druze]] in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel, the Ibadhis (Kharjites) in Oman and Africa, the Ahmadiya of Pakistan, and the Zaydis of Yemen.

==Religious Guidance==
During his lifetime, Muhammad's companions learned and later transcribed the verses (surrahs) of the Qur'an as Muhammad spoke them. In Islam, the teachings of Mohammed were believed to be direct divine revelation from God.

The third Caliph, Uthman, collected and codified the various versions of the surrahs into one written Qur'an that became the standard Arabic text used by the world's Muslims today. The Qur'an is longer than the Bible and written in general order of longest chapters to shortest rather than in any order of when they were spoken, sometimes making the work appear to be confusing. In all there are 114 chapters. Most of the later recorded sayings of Mohammed, which were also more warlike, actually appear earlier in the text. Present-day Muslims look first to the Qur'an as a guide to life, then to the [[Sunnah]], or the way of the Prophet (his life as an example for others) as recorded by his early companions, and then to the [[Hadith]], a collection of the Prophet's sayings, comments, advice, and descriptions.

Frequently, Muslims disagreed over how to interpret certain passages in the Qur'an, the Sunnah, or the Hadith in their search for the ideal life and perfect path to heaven. From these interpretations Sunni Muslims developed four schools of law, or interpretations of law, named after their founders or early leaders: the Hanbali, considered the most strict school and predominant today in Saudi Arabia; Shafi, the school of widest acceptance, found in Egypt, parts of Palestine-Syria, south Arabia, and the Far East; Maliki, prevalent in North Africa, Sudan, and Nigeria; and Hanafi, considered the most moderate school, predominant in Ottoman Turkey and today found primarily on the Levant and Indian subcontinent. Frequently, Muslim countries have two separate legal systems, one for civil, criminal, or commercial law, and a second, and separate, system for religious law. Religious courts and their judges (qadis) might handle issues dealing with marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, religious education, charitable or religious property (Waqf), or family matters. Among Middle Eastern countries, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen have Shariah courts serving alongside their secular courts or have adopted [[Sharia]]h (Islamic law) as the basis of their legal systems.

====Clergy====
Sunni Islam does not have a priesthood or clerical hierarchy to conduct religious services or interpret scripture, but it does have prayer leaders, called Imams, and religious scholars, called Ulama, who often are educated men familiar with the Qur'an and able to offer commentaries on Qur'anic verses. Sunni Muslims also respect the teachings and interpretations of scholars, judges, and academics who may interpret laws, write treatises on Sharia (religious law) or Hadith, and issue Fatwas, religious declarations intended to enlighten or guide Muslims.

Shia Islam has a hierarchy that resembles a priesthood. Mullahs are prayer leaders, but usually do not interpret religious law. Mujtahids are religious scholars who may interpret law or passages from the Qur'an or Hadith. The lower order of Mujtahids are called Hojjatolislam. Ayat Allah (literally sign of God, also Ayatollah) is a higher order of Mujtahid who may issue Fatwas, or religious edicts, in addition to leading Islamic schools, interpreting religious law and the Qur'an, and offering sermons or discourses on proper Islamic behavior.

===Five Pillars of Islam===
*'''Shahadah (Profession of Faith)''' -The Shahadah is the Muslim profession of faith. 'ašhadu 'al-lā ilāha illā-llāhu wa 'ašhadu 'anna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh, a loose English translation reads "''There is none worthy of worship except God, and [[Muhammad]] is the messenger of God''" This testament can be seen as the foundation of all of the other tenets of Islam.

*'''[[Salat]] (Ritual Prayer)''' -All Muslims are required to Pray to God five times each day while facing [[Mecca]].

*'''Zakat (Charity)''' Able Muslims must donate to the poor based on the wealth one has accumulated. In current usage it is interpreted as 2.5% of the value of most valuables and savings held for a full [[lunar year]].

*'''Sawm (Fasting)''' All able-bodied Muslims (children, pregnant women, the elderly, and the ill are exempt) must fast during daylight hours during the daylight hours of the entire month of [[Ramadan]]. According to Muslims, this purifies the body and soul. Some Muslim sects allow military, police and emergency services personnel to receive an exemption from fasting from an imam, on the grounds that their work supports the community or national good.

*'''Hajj (Pilgrimage)''' All able-bodied Muslims must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.

==Other Aspects of Islam==
[[Image:Quran.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Pages from the Qur'an, the holy book of the Islamic religion.]]
====Jihad====
Jihad is the "effort" or "struggle" each Muslim faces in the everyday trials of life, such as the effort to get better grades in school, or the striving to achieve better results from a job, or the struggle to avoid sinful temptations. Jihad also can be applied to warfare; participating in jihad in Allah's cause was the third most important good deed listed in the Hadith, after prayer and honoring one's parents. Jihad often was a rallying cry for the military spread of Islam in the seventh through tenth centuries against non-Muslims.

====Osama bin Laden and Fundamentalists====
[[Osama bin Laden]], a follower of a particular brand of Islam popular in Saudi Arabia, has stated that Islam is at war with the United States and its allies. Some observers maintain that the number of Islam fundamentalists is growing and poses a threat to the West.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.danielpipes.org/255/islamic-fundamentalists-are-the-new-big-threat-to-the-west|title=Islamic Fundamentalists are the New Big Threat to the West|author=Daniel Pipes|newspaper=Philadelphia Inquirer|date=Sept 16, 1994}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.city-journal.org/html/rev2006-06-04td.html|title=All or Nothing: The quest for a moderate Islam may be futile.|date=June 4 2006|author=Theodore Dalrymple|newspaper=Cite Journal}}</ref> But other observers differentiate between conservative "fundamentalists" and the "extremists" who follow murderers such as bin Laden or other terrorists.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://townhall.com/columnists/dineshdsouza/2008/09/15/who_speaks_for_islam/page/full/|title=Who Speaks For Islam|author=Dinesh D'Souza|newspaper=Townhall|date=Sept 15, 2009}}</ref> In several major Islamic nations, bin Laden had the support of the majority of people in the early years after the 9/11 attacks. As he lost battles with the West and started to target fellow Muslims his popularity waned.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/04/30/on-anniversary-of-bin-ladens-death-little-backing-of-al-qaeda/|title=On Anniversary of bin Laden’s Death, Little Backing of al Qaeda|date=April 30, 2012|publisher=Pew Research Center}}</ref>

====People of the Book====
Christians and Jews are called "people of the Book" in the Qur'an and are considered earlier forerunners to Islam and viewed as brothers as long as they pay an extra tax when under Islamic rule. Islam, tracing its roots back to Abraham through his son Ishmael instead of Isaac as the Jews did, believes that they are the descendants of God's promise. Islam believes that both the Old and New Testament were corrupted and corrected by the Qur'an, but there is still an earlier link between the three religions. The view of Jews and Christians varied within different parts of the Qur'an and Islamic history. Much of current Islamic culture, even in places that were once very tolerant such as Egypt, has seen an upsurge in persecution and violence against Christians and Jews.

====Women in Islam====
[[File:Muslim girls at Istiqlal Mosque Jakarta Indonesia.jpg|left|thumb|240px|Muslim girls at Istiqlal [[Mosque]], Jakarta.]]
In pre-Islamic times women's rights were defined by tribal laws which differed amongst the tribes. Some women had absolute equity and the ability to hold power, while some women were treated worse than chattel; bride prices, unlimited polygamy, and female infanticide were a common theme. [[Sharia law|Islamic law]] offered a path for which Muslim men could regulate women in a legal system based on Muslim principles of jurisprudence on the Arabian peninsula. Treated merely as individual sex objects, women were granted very limited rights but as distinct legal individuals; forced to marry who their parents tell them to, women are required not to directly object in order for the marriage contract to have some form of validity.

Unlike the pre-Islamic times where unlimited polygamy occurred, [[Sharia law]] limits [[polygamy]] to a maximum of four wives at any one time, though the use of "temporary" marriage in effect rendered this restriction meaningless. Once married, only men are entitled to divorce any time they please. The reality of traditional Sharia law as applied in the modern era has shocked the modern conscience.<ref>Linda Rae Bennett, ''Women, Islam and Modernity'' (2005)</ref> These restrictions on women were put into place over a thousand years ago, and there has been little progress since. Women are still not allowed to drive a [[car]], they cannot ride [[bicycle]]s, are unable to [[vote]], have been prohibited from traveling abroad without permission, and they can't use public facilities when men are present.

[[File:Sharia.jpg|right|thumb|220px|Muslim woman tortured under Sharia law.]]
Women in Islam are treated as inferiors to men in almost every regard. In [[Sharia]], the testimony of one man equals that of five women. Women are required to cover the head and body in public, by wearing the hijab. Hijab is applied in different ways: a small scarf around the head and western street clothes may be acceptable in Cairo or Damascus but a full length opaque [[Burqa]] was enforced in Taliban Afghanistan. As of 2008, [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Iran]], and [[Pakistan]] are the most significant Middle Eastern countries where the government requires women to wear some form of restrictive garb, though cultural pressure in most Islamic countries offers women little choice but to submit to the dictat of hijab. Women who disgrace their family are put to death in "[[honor killing]]s"; buried halfway or sometimes up to their neck so they cannot run, women, who are in most cases victims, are stoned to death.

=====Islamic dress is a regular grounds for conflict in multicultural education=====

Treatment of women varies widely by country. In the Islamic state of Saudi Arabia women are forbidden from driving a car, traveling in public without their husband or a male family member as an escort, leaving their home without wearing Islamic dress, working or voting. Though not formally forbidden from owning property, they have no way of obtaining this as work is forbidden and only males are permitted to inherit - should a man die, his brothers, sons and father will all inherit before his wife. These restrictions are part of Sharia law and enforced by the police and a special Islamic office. Pakistan has similar restrictions, but to a lesser extent. In contrast, [[Turkey]] has a majority Muslim population and yet grants women some rights similar to those of men including property ownership, employment, and education to university level.

Muslim apologists suggest the extremely repressive policies of countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are cultural rather than religious, though these are the countries were traditional Islam is strongest. They point to the more moderate Islam practiced in Turkey as a demonstration that Islam and womens' rights are compatible, ignoring the efforts of traditionalists in Turkey to end the few freedoms women were granted by men.

Muslim women's status is controversial. Whilst Muslim men control and oppress Muslim women by compelling them to remain hidden behind the veil, sequestered in the home, and ignorant of the world by denying them access to education and worldly opportunities, Islamic apologists defend some practices. These men claim that many of the restrictions on women, such as the veil, are cultural traditions that pre-date Islam and are intended to protect women from predatory men. Unfortunately, such Muslim men ignore the fact that if a predatory man or group of rapists were to sexually assault a Muslim woman in Islam, she would be punished under Sharia law for "allowing" such an act to occur, and she would likely receive hundreds of lashes and years of jail time; the predatory man or men commonly go unpunished.

====Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem====
Muhammad's home city of Mecca was the site of his earliest preaching and conversions, and is the location of the Kaaba, traditionally held to be the foundation stone of the first mosque built by Adam and later restored by Abraham, and now the focus of the annual pilgrimage (hajj). Some historians suggest that the Kaaba, a black stone probably meteoric in origin, was venerated by pre-Islamic polytheistic religions.

At first, Jerusalem was Islam's holy city and the focus of prayers, but Mecca became the center of Islam after Muhammad's return in 630. Medina, because of its early association with Muhammad and as the site of Muhammad's tomb, is second in importance to Mecca. Jerusalem is revered by Muslims as the site of Solomon's temple, Abraham's near sacrifice of his son Ishmael, and the scene of Muhammad's miraculous midnight journey, the latter two now enshrined in the [[Dome of the Rock]] mosque. According to the Qur'an (Surrah 17:1, Isra) and Hadith, Muhammad and Gabriel were taken on winged mules from Mecca to Jerusalem, where they ascended through the seven heavens to the presence of Allah. During the visit, Muhammad learned, among other points, that Muslims were to pray five times each day and to honor Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets.

====Restrictions====
Observant Muslims are not supposed to eat pork and in general do not have dogs as pets; both swine and canines are considered unclean. Muslims can have dogs for safety. Muslims are prohibited from drinking alcoholic beverages, gambling, and from collecting interest on financial transactions.

===Female Genital Mutilation and Honour Killings===
FGM (also known as female circumcision) is mentioned in Hadith as an "honorable" condition for a woman, and act to carry out. It is a pre-Islamic tradition in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, though not in Coptic Egypt as some Islamic apologists claim. Female circumcision is not called for nor is it supported by the Qur'an.

Another pagan practice practice continued in Islamic countries is [[honor killing]], in which a brother, father, or uncle "restores" or "defends" a family's honor by killing the sister, daughter, or niece that "dishonored" the family through supposedly, "promiscuous" behaviour. This "promiscuous" activity often includes women from Islamic societies living in the West aspiring to a more open lifestyle. The "honor killing" is more ancient, and pagan in origin, but tolerated and practised more or less openly in some Muslim societies. Honor killings are not supported by the Qur'an and are directly commanded against with the Surah "Who so ever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind, and who so ever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind."

==Islam and Christianity==
''See also: [[Dhimma]]'' 
''See also: [[Islam and tolerance|Islam and Tolerance]]'' 
While Muslims do not believe Jesus to be the Son of God or in the Resurrection, they consider Him and His mother to be of God's most important prophets (Marian and Isa) otherwise known as Mary and Jesus. However, the Qur'an warns against worshipping Jesus, Muhammad, and other humans for fear of [[idolatry]].<ref>[http://www.ccg.org/_domain/ccg.org/Islam/Islam.htm Christian Churches of God Articles on Islam], March 10, 2007</ref>

The Qur'an states that non-believers will be punished, though the nature of the punishment is not specified (same as similar statements in the Bible and the Torah):

{{cquote|Surely, disbelievers are those who said:
'Allah is the third of the three (in a Trinity).' But there is no god but One, Allah.
And if they cease not from what they say, verily, a painful torment will befall the disbelievers among them.

Will they not repent to Allah and ask His Forgiveness? For Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful.

The Messiah , son of Mary, was no more than a Messenger; many were the Messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a Siddiqah (i.e. she believed in the words of God and His Books ).
They both used to eat food (as any other human eat).
Look how We make the signs clear to them, yet look how they are deluded away (from the truth)."
}}
::(Qur'an 5:73-75)

However, Islam does recognize Christians and Jews as "people of the book" since both refer to one God only, and recognize Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) as a founding prophet.

==Sharia==
[[Image:StarCresent.png|thumb|right|220px|The Star and Crescent is a symbol of Islam. It is featured in the national flag of [[Algeria]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Malaysia]], [[Tunisia]], [[Mauritania]], [[Pakistan]], and [[Turkey]], amongst others]]
[[Sharia]] is the body of Islamic law. The term means "way" or "path"; it is the legal framework within which public and some private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Muslim principles of jurisprudence. It is not actually part of the canonical Qur'an; that is to say, it is not believed to be the direct word of God by Muslims, but rather the interpretation of it.

Sharia deals with many aspects of day-to-day life, including politics, economics, banking, business law, contract law, sexuality, marriage, divorce, and social issues. Most Islamic scholars regard Sharia as the body of precedent and legal theory established during the early stages of the Islamic Empire, though a few scholars also believe contemporary legal cases can and should shape the law, though such thinkers may be subject to ridicule and even threats from Islamists.

Sharia law proscribes often brutal punishments for acts, that, in the western world, are relatively minor. For example, under sharia law, converting from Islam is punishable by death,<ref>[http://www.ntpi.org/html/whyoppose.html]</ref> whilst women found guilty of adultery is punishable by stoning to death, which often includes many rape victims, as Sharia courts often regard a rape victim as guilty of adultery unless she can provide four witnesses to the act of rape.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6148590.stm</ref> In cases involving the death penalty of corporal punishment, methods of carrying out the punishment are often barbaric, and include public beheading, chopping off of the hand, and flogging.<ref>http://saudiwoman.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/punishment-in-saudi-arabia/</ref> Many Islamist groups have been attempting to have Shariah courts set up in European countries, initially to rule over civil cases between Muslims in Europe.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,422661,00.html</ref>

==Terminology==
Additional archaic terms for Muslims include, but are not limited to, "Hagarene" and "Saracen." The term Hagarene was more common in post-crusade Europe as it made specific reference to the biblical mother of Ishmael. Ishmael in the Muslim faith plays an analogous theological role to Isaac. Muslims do not use it today to avoid confusing worship of [[Muhammad]] with worship of [[Allah]]<ref>Schimmel, (1992)</ref>

==Ex-Muslims==
[[Michelle Malkin]] highlights a group of Ex-Muslims hoping to change the terms of debate about Islam in Europe. Maryam Namazie, the head of the British group said "Too many things in the media and government policies have been geared to pandering to the political Islamic movements and Islamic organizations." <ref> [http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/20/ex-muslims-stand-up-in-britain/ Ex-Muslims stand up in Britain]</ref> Ex-Muslims include Ibn Warraq, Wafa Sultan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Mark A. Gabriel, Walid Shoebat, and Mosab Hassan Yousef.

==Critics==
Most contemporary critics of Islam are either atheists or nominally religious: [[Ibn Warraq]] (author), [[Wafa Sultan]] (psychiatrist), [[Ayaan Hirsi Ali]] (author), [[Hugh Fitzgerald]] (of JihadWatch), [[David Horowitz]] (author), [[Oriana Fallaci]] (author), [[Geert Wilders]] (politician), [[Sam Harris]] (author), [[Pamela Geller]] (blogger), [[Bill Maher]] (comedian) and the crowd at they Ayn Rand Institute. The notable exception is [[Robert Spencer]], who while a devout Catholic, criticizes Islam as a political ideology. Political critics include [[Herman Cain]] and [[Rick Santorum]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.news-press.com/article/20130323/NEWS0119/303230016/Santorum-delivers-warning-about-radical-Islam-during-Naples-appearance|title=Santorum delivers warning about radical Islam during Naples appearance|date=March 23, 2013|newspaper=Fort Meyers News Press|author=Lindsay Downey}}</ref>. Neither [[Ronald Reagan]] (who help mujahideen fight atheistic communists) nor [[George W. Bush]] (“Islam means peace”) saw Islam as the problem. Commentators note that the conservative response to fundamental Islam is a far cry from the complete and unequivocal condemnation of Communism during the heyday of the Cold War.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liberty-and-culture.com/conservatives.html|title=The Conservative Response to the Islamic Threat.|author=Jason Pappas|date=Sept 5, 2004}}</ref> Dinesh D’Souza argues that Muslims are God-fearing conservatives.<ref>{{cite book|author=Dinesh D’Souza|title=The Enemy At Home|year=2007|publisher= Doubleday}}</ref>

<ref>''Some of the text for this article was taken from "Islam: A Primer", Congressional Research Service Report for Congress (2003), a work in the public domain'' [http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/islam.htm#back] </ref>

== See also ==
[[Image:Africa islam 87.jpg|thumb|Islam in Africa]]
*[[Arab American]]
*[[Islamic republic]]
*[[Islamophobia]]
*[[Qur'an]]
*[[Jihadism]], an extremist, take on Islam
*[[Ramadan]]
*[[In the midst of a Maelstrom: the Holy Spirit and silence: an essay]] encounter of Israeli Messianic Jew and Egyptian Muslim in Alexandria
*[[List of countries by number of Muslims]]

==Further reading==
* Armour, Rollin. ''Islam, Christianity, and the West: A Troubled History'' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Islam-Christianity-West-Troubled-History/dp/1570754071/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342713&sr=1-32 excerpt and text search]
* Armstrong, Karen. ''Islam: A Short History'' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Islam-History-Modern-Library-Chronicles/dp/081296618X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342302&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Berkey, Jonathan P. ''The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800'' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Formation-Islam-Religion-Society-600-1800/dp/0521588138/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342713&sr=1-27 excerpt and text search]
* Campo, Juan Eduardo. ''Encyclopedia of Islam'' (2009), basic introduction
* Esposito, John J. ''The Oxford History of Islam'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-History-Islam-John-Esposito/dp/0195107993/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342302&sr=1-6 excerpt and text search]
* Glasse, Cyril. ''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'' ( 2nd ed. 2008)
* Lewis, Bernard. ''Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East'' (2001), by leading conservative historian [http://www.amazon.com/Islam-History-People-Events-Middle/dp/0812695186/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342525&sr=1-15 excerpt and text search]
* Martin, Richard C. et al. ''Encyclopedia of Islam & the Muslim World'' (2003), more advanced
* Newby, Gordon. ''A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam'' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Concise-Encyclopedia-Islam-Gordon-Newby/dp/1851682953/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342942&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Robinson, Chase F. ed. ''The New Cambridge History of Islam'' (Volume 1) (2009), summarizes advanced scholarship
* Ruthven, Malise, and Azim Nanji. ''Historical Atlas of Islam'' (2004)
* Schimmel, Annemarie. ''Islam: An Introduction''. (1992)
* Sonn, Tamara and Mary Williamsburg. ''A Brief History of Islam'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Blackwell-Histories-Religion/dp/1405109009/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342302&sr=1-12 excerpt and text search]
* Wheatcroft, Andrew. ''Infidels: A History of the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam'' (2005) [http://www.amazon.com/Infidels-History-Conflict-Between-Christendom/dp/0812972392/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342525&sr=1-13 excerpt and text search]

==External links==
*[http://muslim-canada.org/islam_christianity.html Islam and Christianity] - excellent article comparing and contrasting the two.
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/ Qur'an online in English]
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/ Sahih Bukhari (Hadith collection) online in English]
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/ Sahih Muslim (Hadith collection) online in English]
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/abudawud/ Sunan Abu-Dawud (Hadith collection) online in English]
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muwatta/ Malik's Muwatta (Hadith collection) online in English]
* Congressional Research Service, "Islam: A Primer", Report for Congress (2003), a work in the public domain and the source of part of this article [http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/islam.htm#back]
*[http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2011/01/islamists-torch-pope-in-effigy-again.html Islamists Torch Pope in Effigy, Again]
*[http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/2010/december/849_kind-strangers.html Muslims Saving Jews During World War II.] By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh.
*[http://differencesbetween.com/islam-and-muslim/ Difference Between Islam and Muslim]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ A Turkish Delight: they think so in Israel too!]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Turkey's Islamic scholar, Rabbi Meir Lau, and Cain speechless before Abel]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Muslims]]
[[Category:Islam]]

North Korea

2013-04-15T18:14:49Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

{{Country
|name =조선민주주의인민공화국 Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk ''Democratic People's Republic of Korea''
|map =Korea north rel 2005.jpg
|map2 =NorthKorea location.png
|flag =Flag of North Korea.png
|arms =Arms of North Korea.png
|capital =P'yongyang
|government =Communist totalitarian state
|language =Korean
|area =46,526 sq mi
|pop =23,301,725(2007)
|gdp-year =$22.85 billion (2006)
|gdp-pc =$1,007 (2006)
|currency = North Korean won
}}
'''North Korea''' is the world's most severe [[totalitarian]] [[dictatorship]] and one of the poorest and most [[famine]]-stricken nations on earth. It lies in eastern Asia and occupies the Korean peninsula north of a line that roughly follows the 38th parallel.
It was ruled by self-absorbed dictator and "Dear Leader" [[Kim Jong Il]], who succeeded his father the "Great Leader" [[Kim Il Sung]]. Upon Kim Jong-Il's death, his son [[Kim Jong-un]] officially took over.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/world/asia/packaging-of-Kim-Jong-un-in-north-korea.html?pagewanted=all New York Times; 1 February; To Sell a New Leader, North Korea Finds a Mirror Is Handy]</ref>

Its official name is '''Democratic People's Republic of Korea''', but its government does not follow Western ideas of [[democracy]]. Rather, it is organized along [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] lines. Its Supreme People's Assembly is merely a [[rubber stamp]] parliament.<ref>http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/05/21/North-Korea-slammed-over-Cheonan-sinking/UPI-48941274459460/</ref>

The official North Korean ideology is known as [[Juche]] (which roughly translates as "national self-reliance"), and since the mid 1990s, [[Songun]] ("military first"). A cult-like devotion to the "Great Leader" and "Dear Leader" is expected of citizens, and heavily promoted in the North Korean news media which has little actual news and mostly consists of effusive praise toward [[Kim Jong Il]], grandiose and unsubstantiated claims about great feats by him and his father, and repetitious admonitions that the Korean people are totally united as one behind his leadership. In contrast between 600,000 and 3.5 million North Koreans have died of starvation in recent years because the Kim government has so mismanaged the economy, particularly agriculture, and has hampered outside efforts at relief.<ref>http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071009/COMMENTARY/110090010/1012&template=nextpage</ref>

==People==
*Population (2006): 23.1 million.
*Annual growth rate: About +0.98%.
*Ethnic groups: [[Korean]]; small ethnic Chinese and Japanese populations.
*Religions: [[Buddhism]], [[Confucianism]], [[Shamanism]], [[Chongdogyo]], [[Christian]]; autonomous religious activities have been virtually nonexistent since 1945.
*Language: Korean.
*Education: Years compulsory--11. Attendance--3 million (primary, 1.5 million; secondary, 1.2 million; tertiary, 0.3 million). Literacy--99%.
*Health (1998): Medical treatment is free; one doctor for every 700 inhabitants; one hospital bed for every 350; there are severe shortages of medicines and medical equipment. Infant mortality rate--23.29 /1,000 (2006 est.). Life expectancy--males 68 yrs., females 74 yrs. (2006 est.)

Amnesty International published a report in June 2010 which alleges that the North Korean health care system is "in shambles". Interviews with 40 individuals who defected from that country indicate a wide-spread shortage of medicine and medical implements; a lack of ambulatory services in major cities; the use of unsterilized needles; major operations and amputations done without anesthesia, on a system which spends the equivalent of one dollar per person per year on health care. This discrepancy is compounded by the fact that many citizens are forced to endure a starvation diet by subsisting on grass, tree bark and roots.<ref>http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100715/Amnesty-International-reveals-the-rotting-health-care-system-in-North-Korea.aspx</ref><ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_re_as/as_nkorea_crumbling_health_care</ref>

==Religion==
Government policy and practice severely restricted the practice of religion, and it is a dogmatically [[atheist]] regime. The 2007 KINU White Paper indicated that the regime utilizes authorized religious entities for external propaganda and political purposes, and that citizens are strictly barred from entering places of worship. Ordinary citizens consider such sites to be primarily sightseeing spots for foreigners. KINU concluded that the lack of churches or religious facilities in the provinces indicates that ordinary citizens do not enjoy religious freedom.

Little is known about the day-to-day life of religious persons in the country. Members of government-controlled religious groups did not appear to suffer discrimination. Some reports claimed, and circumstantial evidence suggested, that many, if not most of these groups, have been organized by the regime for propaganda and political purposes, including meeting with foreign religious visitors.

The number of religious believers is unknown but was estimated by the Government to be 10,000 Protestants, 10,000 Buddhists, and 4,000 Catholics. Estimates by South Korean and international church-related groups were considerably higher. In addition, the Chondogyo Young Friends Party, a government-approved group based on a traditional religious movement, had approximately 40,000 practitioners, according to the Government.<ref> See [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108410.htm U.S. State Department "International Religious Freedom Report 2008"]</ref>

In Pyongyang there were reportedly four state-controlled Christian churches: two Protestant churches under lay leadership (Bongsu and Chilgol Churches), the Changchung Roman Catholic Church, and the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church. The Chilgol Church is dedicated to the memory of former leader Kim Il-sung's mother, Kang Pan-sok, who was a Presbyterian deaconess. The number of congregants regularly worshiping at these churches is unknown.

The Presbyterian Church of Korea in the South was partnering with the Christian Association in North Korea to rebuild Bongsu Church. In the fall of 2006, a delegation of 90 Christians from South Korea visited the Bongsu church to celebrate completion of its first phase of renovation. According to religious leaders who traveled to the country, there were Protestant pastors at these churches, although it was not known if they were resident or visiting.

In its July 2002 report to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, the Government reported the existence of 500 "family worship centers." However, according to the 2007 Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) White Paper, defectors interviewed were unaware of any such centers. Observers stated that "family worship centers" may be part of the state-controlled Korean Christian Federation, while an unknown number of "underground churches" operate apart from the Federation and are not recognized by the Government. Some NGOs and academics estimate there may be up to several hundred thousand underground Christians in the country. Others question the existence of a large-scale underground church or conclude that no reliable estimate of the number of underground religious believers exists. Individual underground congregations are reportedly very small and confined to private homes. At the same time, some NGOs reported that the individual churches are connected to each other through well-established networks. The regime has not allowed outsiders the access necessary to confirm such claims.

There were an estimated 300 Buddhist temples. Most were regarded as cultural relics, but religious activity was permitted in some. A few Buddhist temples and relics have been renovated or restored in recent years under a broad effort aimed at "preserving the Korean nation's cultural heritage." In 2007 reconstruction was completed on the Shingye or Singyesa (Holy Valley) Temple, which was destroyed during the Korean War. The Republic of Korea (ROK) Government and foreign tourists funded the reconstruction. A South Korean monk, the first to permanently reside in North Korea, has lived at the temple since 2004 but serves primarily as a guide for visiting tourists rather than as a pastor caring for Buddhists living in the area.

The Government announced in June 2007 that 500 monks and Buddhist followers were making day-long pilgrimages to the recently renovated Ryongthong temple in Kaesong strictly for religious purposes. Foreign diplomats in Pyongyang who visited the temple were told that the two monks living there may be joined by more. State-controlled press reported on several occasions that Buddhist ceremonies had been carried out in various locations. Official reporting also linked descriptions of such ceremonies with the broader theme of Korean unification.

The Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church opened in Pyongyang in 2006. The church was reportedly commissioned by Kim Jong-il after he visited an Orthodox cathedral in Russia in 2002. Two North Koreans who studied at the Russian Orthodox Seminary in Moscow have been ordained as priests and are serving at the church. The purported aim of the church was primarily to provide pastoral care of Russians in the country, but one religious leader with access to the country speculated that the church likely extended pastoral care to all Orthodox Koreans as well. Similar to other religious groups, no reliable data exists on the number of Orthodox believers.

Several foreigners residing in Pyongyang attended Korean-language services at the Christian churches on a regular basis. Some foreigners who visited the country stated that church services appeared staged and contained political content supportive of the regime, in addition to religious themes. Foreign legislators attending services in Pyongyang in previous years noted that congregations arrived at and departed services as groups on tour buses, and some observed that they did not include any children. Other foreigners noted that they were not permitted to have contact with congregants. Foreign observers had limited ability to ascertain the level of government control over these groups, but it was generally assumed they were monitored closely. According to the 2007 KINU White Paper, defectors reported being unaware of any recognized religious organizations that maintained branches outside of Pyongyang.

Several schools for religious education exist. There are 3-year colleges for training Protestant and Buddhist clergy. A religious studies program also was established at Kim Il-sung University in 1989; its graduates usually worked in the foreign trade sector. In 2000 a Protestant seminary was reopened with assistance from foreign missionary groups. Critics, including at least one foreign sponsor, charged that the Government opened the seminary only to facilitate reception of assistance funds from foreign faith-based NGOs. The Chosun Christian Federation, a religious group believed to be controlled by the Government, contributed to the curriculum used by the seminary. The Chosun Christian League operates the Pyongyang Theological Academy, a graduate institution that trains pastors affiliated with the Korean Christian Federation.

==Government and Political Conditions==
North Korea has a centralized government under the rigid control of the communist [[Workers' Party of Korea]] (WPK), to which all government officials belong. A few minor political parties are allowed to exist in name only. Kim Il-sung ruled North Korea from 1948 until his death in July 1994. Kim served both as Secretary General of the WPK and as President of North Korea.

Little is known about the actual lines of power and authority in the North Korean Government despite the formal structure set forth in the constitution. Following the death of Kim Il-sung, his son--Kim Jong-il--inherited supreme power. Kim Jong-il was named General Secretary of the KWP in October 1997, and in September 1998, the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) reconfirmed Kim Jong-il as Chairman of the National Defense Commission and declared that position as the "highest office of state." However, the President of the Presidium of the National Assembly, Kim Yong-nam, serves as the nominal head of state. North Korea's 1972 constitution was amended in late 1992 and in September 1998.

The constitution designates the Central People's Committee (CPC) as the government's top policymaking body. The CPC makes policy decisions and supervises the cabinet, or State Administration Council (SAC). The SAC is headed by a premier and is the dominant administrative and executive agency.

Officially, the legislature, the SPA, is the highest organ of state power. Its members are elected every four years. Usually only two meetings are held annually, each lasting a few days. A standing committee elected by the SPA performs legislative functions when the Assembly is not in session. In reality, the Assembly serves only to ratify decisions made by the ruling KWP.

North Korea's judiciary is "accountable" to the SPA and the president. The SPA's standing committee also appoints judges to the highest court for four-year terms that are concurrent with those of the Assembly.

Administratively, North Korea is divided into nine provinces and four provincial-level municipalities--[[Pyongyang]], [[Chongjin]], [[Nampo]], and [[Kaesong]]. It also appears to be divided into nine military districts.

===Principal Party and Government Officials===
*Kim Il-Sung--Eternal President (deceased since 1995)
*Kim Jong-un--First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, First Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission; grandson of North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung
*Kim Yong-nam--President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly; titular head of state
*Pak Gil-yon--Ambassador to DPRK Permanent Mission to the UN
*Pak Ui-chun--Minister of Foreign Affairs

===Propaganda===

The DPRK is notorious for its heavy use of political propaganda, revisionist history and [[cult of personality]] surrounding Kim Jong-il and Kim il-Sung. The media is heavily controlled and only state-controlled radio and television broadcasts are permitted for public consumption. This control allows the regime to propagate its many lies and perceptions of the country.

==== Cult of Personality ====

The North Korean state maintains an intense cult of personality surrounding Kim and his son, Kim Jong-il. All North Koreans wear badges with an image of either (or both) Kims and portraits of the deceased leader are voluminous both in cities and the countryside. The capital city of Pyonyang has over 600 statues of Kim, including a 25-metre bronze statue built in 1972 for his sixtieth birthday.

Kim's personality cult is largely based on historical revisionism and many absurd "facts" to emphasize his "divine" abilities and power. Among these:

*He was born under a double rainbow on the sacred Baektul Mountain in 1942. At the moment of his birth, a bright star lit up the sky, the seasons spontaneously changed from winter to spring and a double rainbow appeared in the sky.(In truth, he was born in Vyatskoye, Siberia in 1941.)<ref>http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/BioKimJongil.htm</ref>

*During the Japanese colonial rule of Korea, he fought in more than 100,000 battles in 15 years (over 20 battles a day). (While Kim was in the Soviet army, he never participated in actual combat.)<ref>http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/champion/65/pers_cult.htm</ref>

*He scored eleven holes-in-one the first time he ever played a game of golf.<ref>http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/02/16/kim.birthday.reut/</ref>

*He invented the hamburger. <ref>http://listverse.com/2010/05/30/top-10-crazy-facts-about-kim-jong-il/</ref>

*He scored a perfect 300 the first time he went bowling. <ref>http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2011/1222/Kim-Jong-il-Legendary-golfer-and-mythical-powers-even-in-death</ref>

*When he died, "the skies glowed red above Mount Paektu and the impenetrable sheet of ice at the heart of the mystical volcano cracked with a deafening roar." <ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/22/kim-jong-il-dies-myths_n_1164755.html</ref>

====Revisionist history====

Despite overwhelming historical and historiographical evidence, North Korean media and schools maintain the myth that the South started the Korean war and that the North was victorious.

====Anti-American and other propaganda ====

As well as the state-sponsored propaganda served up to its own citizens, the DPRK attempts to push its message onto South Koreans as well.

The best examples are found on the North Korean side of the DMZ, where massive hillside signs point to the U.S. as an enemy of reunification and boast of a prosperous life in the North. More absurd is Jikong-dong, also known as "Propaganda village," a fake town intended to show the fine living conditions in the North.<ref>http://www.nickspics.net/v/Travel/South_Korea_2009/IMG_2075_5DMK2.JPG.html</ref> The town is devoid of human life and was quickly exposed as a sham when Southern officials noticed that all city lights turned on and off at the same time each day, most windows contained no glass and there was no evident civilian life. The town also boasts the world's tallest flagpole, bearing a North Korean flag weighing 600 pounds.<ref>http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronbrownphotos/3514929586/</ref>

===Foreign Relations===
North Korea's relationship with the South has determined much of its post-[[World War II]] history and still undergirds much of its foreign policy. North and South Korea have had a difficult and acrimonious relationship from the Korean War. In recent years, North Korea has pursued a mixed policy--seeking to develop economic relations with South Korea and to win the support of the South Korean public for greater North-South engagement while at the same time continuing to denounce the R.O.K.'s security relationship with the United States and maintaining a threatening conventional force posture on the DMZ and in adjacent waters. Technically, neither the North or the South recognizes its counterpart as an official nation, and both declare themselves to be the sole legitimate government of the Korean peninsula.

The military demarcation line (MDL) of separation between the belligerent sides at the close of the Korean War divides North Korea from South Korea. A demilitarized zone (DMZ) extends for 2,000 meters (just over 1 mile) on either side of the MDL. Both the North and South Korean governments hold that the MDL is only a temporary administrative line, not a permanent border.

During the postwar period, both Korean governments have repeatedly affirmed their desire to reunify the Korean Peninsula, but until 1971 the two governments had no direct, official communications or other contact.

====Reunification Efforts Since 1971====
In August 1971, North and South Korea held talks through their respective Red Cross societies with the aim of reuniting the many Korean families separated following the division of Korea and the Korean War. In July 1972, the two sides agreed to work toward peaceful reunification and an end to the hostile atmosphere prevailing on the peninsula. Officials exchanged visits, and regular communications were established through a North-South coordinating committee and the Red Cross. These initial contacts broke down in 1973 following South Korean President Park Chung-hee's announcement that the South would seek separate entry into the United Nations, and after the kidnapping of South Korean opposition leader Kim Dae-jung--perceived as friendly to unified entry into the UN--by South Korean intelligence services. There was no other significant contact between North and South Korea until 1984.

Dialogue was renewed in September 1984, when South Korea accepted the North's offer to provide relief goods to victims of severe flooding in South Korea. Red Cross talks to address the plight of separated families resumed, as did talks on economic and trade issues and parliamentary-level discussions. However, the North then unilaterally suspended all talks in January 1986, arguing that the annual U.S.-ROK "Team Spirit" military exercise was inconsistent with dialogue. There was a brief flurry of negotiations that year on co-hosting the upcoming 1988 Seoul Olympics, which ended in failure and was followed by the 1987 bombing of a South Korean commercial aircraft (KAL 858) by North Korean agents.

In July 1988, South Korean President Roh Tae-woo called for new efforts to promote North-South exchanges, family reunification, inter-Korean trade, and contact in international forums. Roh followed up this initiative in a UN General Assembly speech in which South Korea offered for the first time to discuss security matters with the North. Initial meetings that grew out of Roh's proposals started in September 1989. In September 1990, the first of eight prime minister-level meetings between North Korean and South Korean officials took place in Seoul. The prime ministerial talks resulted in two major agreements: the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression, Exchanges, and Cooperation (the "Basic Agreement") and the Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula (the "Joint Declaration").

The Basic Agreement, signed on December 13, 1991, called for reconciliation and nonaggression and established four joint commissions. These commissions--on South-North reconciliation, South-North military affairs, South-North economic exchanges and cooperation, and South-North social and cultural exchange--were to work out the specifics for implementing the basic agreement. Subcommittees to examine specific issues were created, and liaison offices were established in Panmunjom, but in the fall of 1992 the process came to a halt because of rising tension over North Korea's nuclear program.

The Joint Declaration on denuclearization was initialized on December 31, 1991. It forbade both sides from testing, manufacturing, producing, receiving, possessing, storing, deploying, or using nuclear weapons and forbade the possession of nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities. A procedure for inter-Korean inspection was to be organized and a North-South Joint Nuclear Control Commission (JNCC) was mandated to verify the denuclearization of the peninsula.

On January 30, 1992, the D.P.R.K. finally signed a nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as it had pledged to do in 1985 when it acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This safeguards agreement allowed IAEA inspections to begin in June 1992. In March 1992, the JNCC was established in accordance with the Joint Declaration, but subsequent meetings failed to reach agreement on the main issue of establishing a bilateral inspection regime.

As the 1990s progressed, concern over the North's nuclear program became a major issue in North-South relations and between North Korea and the United States. The lack of progress on implementation of the Joint Declaration's provision for an inter-Korean nuclear inspection regime led to reinstatement of the U.S.-R.O.K. Team Spirit military exercise for 1993. The situation worsened rapidly when North Korea, in January 1993, refused IAEA access to two suspected nuclear waste sites and then announced in March 1993 its intent to withdraw from the NPT. During the next two years, the United States held direct talks with the D.P.R.K. that resulted in a series of agreements on nuclear matters, including the 1994 Agreed Framework (which broke down in 2002 when North Korea was discovered to be pursuing a uranium enrichment program for nuclear weapons--see below, Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula).

At his inauguration in February 1998, R.O.K. President Kim Dae-jung enunciated a new policy of engagement with the D.P.R.K., dubbed "the Sunshine Policy." The policy had three fundamental principles: no tolerance of provocations from the North, no intention to absorb the North, and the separation of political cooperation from economic cooperation. Private sector overtures would be based on commercial and humanitarian considerations. The use of government resources would entail reciprocity. This policy set the stage for the first inter-Korean summit, held in Pyongyang June 13-15, 2000.

R.O.K. President Roh Moo-hyun, following his inauguration in February 2003, has continued his predecessor's policy of engagement with the North, though he abandoned the name "Sunshine Policy." The United States supports President Roh's engagement policy and North-South dialogue and cooperation. Major economic reunification projects have included a tourism development in Mt. Geumgang, the re-establishment of road and rail links across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and a joint North-South industrial park near the North Korean city of Kaesong (see further information below in the section on the Economy). In August 2007, the R.O.K. and D.P.R.K. announced plans to hold a second inter-Korean summit, scheduled for October 2-4 in Pyongyang.

===Relations Outside the Korean Peninsula===
Throughout the Cold War, North Korea balanced its relations with China and the Soviet Union to extract the maximum benefit from the relationships at minimum political cost. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, the Soviet-backed Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan created strains between China and the Soviet Union and, in turn, in North Korea's relations with its two major communist allies. North Korea tried to avoid becoming embroiled in the Sino-Soviet split, obtaining aid from both the Soviet Union and China and trying to avoid dependence on either. Following Kim Il-sung's 1984 visit to Moscow, there was an improvement in Soviet-D.P.R.K. relations, resulting in renewed deliveries of Soviet weaponry to North Korea and increases in economic aid.

The establishment of diplomatic relations by South Korea with the Soviet Union in 1990 and with China in 1992 seriously strained relations between North Korea and its traditional allies. Moreover, the fall of communism in eastern Europe in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in a significant drop in communist aid to North Korea. Despite these changes and its past reliance on this military and economic assistance, North Korea continued to proclaim a militantly independent stance in its foreign policy in accordance with its official ideology of "juche," or self-reliance.

Both North and South Korea became parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1987. (North Korea is not a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention, nor is it a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime, or MTCR.)

North Korea has maintained membership in some multilateral organizations. It became a member of the UN in September 1991. North Korea also belongs to the Food and Agriculture Organization; the International Civil Aviation Organization; the International Postal Union; the UN Conference on Trade and Development; the International Telecommunications Union; the UN Development Program; the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; the World Health Organization; the World Intellectual Property Organization; the World Meteorological Organization; the International Maritime Organization; the International Committee of the Red Cross; and the Nonaligned Movement.

In the mid-1990s, when the economic situation worsened dramatically and following the death of D.P.R.K. founder Kim Il-sung, the North abandoned some of the more extreme manifestations of its "self reliance" ideology to accept foreign humanitarian relief and create the possibility, as noted below, for foreign investment in the North. In subsequent years, the D.P.R.K. has continued to pursue a tightly restricted policy of opening to the world in search of economic aid and development assistance. However, this has been matched by an increased determination to counter perceived external and internal threats by a self-proclaimed "military first" ("Songun") policy.

During the present period of limited, extremely cautious opening, North Korea has sought to broaden its formal diplomatic relationships. In July 2000, North Korea began participating in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), with Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun attending the ARF ministerial meeting in Bangkok. The D.P.R.K. also expanded its bilateral diplomatic ties in that year, establishing diplomatic relations with Italy, Australia, the Philippines, Australia, Canada, the U.K., Germany, and many other European countries.

In the September 19, 2005 Joint Statement issued at the end of the fourth round of Six-Party Talks, the United States and the D.P.R.K. committed to undertake steps to normalize relations (see below, Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula). The D.P.R.K. and Japan also agreed to take steps to normalize relations and to discuss outstanding issues of concern, such as abductions. The U.S.-D.P.R.K. and Japan-D.P.R.K. bilateral working groups on normalization of relations met in March and September 2007.

====Terrorism====
The D.P.R.K. is not known to have sponsored terrorist acts since the 1987 bombing of KAL flight 858. Pyongyang continues to provide sanctuary to members of the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction (JRA) who participated in the hijacking of a Japan Airlines flight to North Korea in 1970.

The D.P.R.K. has made several statements condemning terrorism. In October 2000, the United States and the D.P.R.K. issued a joint statement on terrorism in which "the two sides agreed that international terrorism poses an unacceptable threat to global security and peace, and that terrorism should be opposed in all its forms." The United States and the D.P.R.K. agreed to support the international legal regime combating international terrorism and to cooperate with each other to fight terrorism. The D.P.R.K. became a signatory to the Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism and a party to the Convention Against the Taking of Hostages in November 2001. In the February 13, 2007 Initial Actions agreement, the [[United States of America]] agreed to begin the process of removing the designation of the D.P.R.K. as a state sponsor of terrorism. On Saturday October 11, 2008. The United States officially removed North Korea from the Terrorism Watch List. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,436382,00.html North Korea no longer a recognized Terrorist sponsor.]</ref>

====Abductions====
In the past, the D.P.R.K. has also been involved in the abduction of foreign citizens. In 2002, Kim Jong-il acknowledged to Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi the involvement of D.P.R.K. "special institutions" in the kidnapping of Japanese citizens between 1977 and 1983 and said that those responsible had been punished. While five surviving victims and their families were allowed to leave the D.P.R.K. and resettle in Japan in October 2002, 12 other cases remain unresolved and continue to be a major issue in D.P.R.K.-Japanese relations. In October 2005, the D.P.R.K. acknowledged for the first time having kidnapped R.O.K. citizens in previous decades, claiming that several abductees, as well as several POWs from the Korean War, were still alive. In June 2006, North Korea allowed Kim Young-nam, a South Korean abducted by the North in 1978, to participate in a family reunion.

In 2001, a series of articles in foreign and Russian Federation newspapers, resting on reports from Russian Federation human rights activists and Amnesty International and the New York based Human Rights Watch alleged the D.P.R.K. abduction of up to 30,000 North Korean dissidents as well as common citizens to work in the Siberian labor and forestry camps in a scheme to pay off billions owed by North Korea to the Russia of both Soviet and Federation times. This forced labor was similar in nature and form to the gulags of Soviet Russia (see [[KAL 007 Survivors and Gulags of Russia]]).

===United States policy towards North Korea===
====U.S. Support for North-South Dialogue and Reunification====
The United States supports the peaceful reunification of Korea on terms acceptable to the Korean people and recognizes that the future of the Korean Peninsula is primarily a matter for them to decide. The United States believes that a constructive and serious dialogue between the authorities of North and South Korea is necessary to resolve outstanding problems, including the North's nuclear program and human rights abuses, and to encourage the North's integration with the rest of the international community.

====Efforts to Denuclearize the Korean Peninsula====
[[File:DPKR camps and nukes.png|right|200px|thumb|Locations of major hard-labor/re-education camps where the inmate population exceeds 20,000 each, nuclear-related facilities, and the test bomb site]]
North Korea joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapons state in 1985. North and South Korean talks begun in 1990 resulted in the 1992 Joint Declaration for a Non-Nuclear Korean Peninsula (see, under Foreign Relations, Reunification Efforts Since 1971). However, the international standoff over the North's failure to implement an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency for the inspection of the North's nuclear facilities led Pyongyang to announce in March 1993 its intention to withdraw from the NPT. A UN Security Council Resolution in May 1993 urged the D.P.R.K. to cooperate with the IAEA and to implement the 1992 North-South Denuclearization Statement. It also urged all UN Member States to encourage the D.P.R.K. to respond positively to this resolution and to facilitate a solution to the nuclear issue.

The United States opened talks with the D.P.R.K. in June 1993 and eventually reached agreement in October 1994 on a diplomatic roadmap, known as the Agreed Framework, for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The Agreed Framework called for the following steps:
*North Korea agreed to freeze its existing nuclear program and allow monitoring by the IAEA.
*Both sides agreed to cooperate to replace the D.P.R.K.'s graphite-moderated reactors with light-water reactor (LWR) power plants, by a target date of 2003, to be financed and supplied by an international consortium (later identified as the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization or KEDO).
*As an interim measure, the United States agreed to provide North Korea with 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil annually until the first reactor was built.
*The United States and D.P.R.K. agreed to work together to store safely the spent fuel from the five-megawatt reactor and dispose of it in a safe manner that did not involve reprocessing in the D.P.R.K.
*The two sides agreed to move toward full normalization of political and economic relations.
*The two sides agreed to work together for peace and security on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
*The two sides agreed to work together to strengthen the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.
In accordance with the terms of the Agreed Framework, in January 1995 the U.S. Government eased economic sanctions against North Korea in response to North Korea's freezing its graphite-moderated nuclear program under United States and IAEA verification. North Korea agreed to accept the decisions of KEDO, the financier and supplier of the LWRs, with respect to provision of the reactors. KEDO subsequently identified Sinpo as the LWR project site and held a groundbreaking ceremony in August 1997. In December 1999, KEDO and the (South) Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) signed the Turnkey Contract (TKC), permitting full-scale construction of the LWRs.

In January 1995, as called for in the 1994 Agreed Framework, the United States and D.P.R.K. negotiated a method to store safely the spent fuel from the D.P.R.K.'s five-megawatt nuclear reactor. Under this method, United States and D.P.R.K. operators worked together to can the spent fuel and store the canisters in a spent fuel pond; canning began in 1995. In April 2000, canning of all accessible spent fuel rods and rod fragments was completed.

In 1998, the United States identified an underground site in Kumchang-ni, North Korea, which it suspected of being nuclear-related. In March 1999, after several rounds of negotiations, the United States and D.P.R.K. agreed that the United States would be granted "satisfactory access" to the underground site at Kumchang-ni. In October 2000, during D.P.R.K. Special Envoy Marshal Jo Myong-rok's visit to Washington, and after two visits to the site by teams of U.S. experts, the United States announced in a Joint Communiqué with the D.P.R.K. that U.S. concerns about the site had been resolved.

As called for in former Defense Secretary William Perry's official review of U.S. policy toward North Korea, the United States and the D.P.R.K. launched Agreed Framework Implementation Talks in May 2000 The United States and the D.P.R.K. also began negotiations for a comprehensive missile agreement, pursuant to the Perry recommendations.

In January 2001, the Bush Administration discontinued nuclear and missile talks, specifying that it intended to review the United States' North Korea policy. The Administration announced on June 6, 2001, that it was prepared to resume dialogue with North Korea on a broader agenda of issues--including North Korea's conventional force posture, missile development and export programs, human rights practices, and humanitarian issues.

In October 2002, a U.S. delegation confronted North Korea with the assessment that the D.P.R.K. was pursuing a uranium enrichment program, in violation of North Korea's obligations under the NPT and its commitments in the 1992 North-South Joint Declaration on Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the Agreed Framework. North Korean officials asserted to the U.S. delegation, headed by then-Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James A. Kelly, the D.P.R.K.'s "right" to a uranium enrichment program and indicated that that it had such a program. The U.S. side stated that North Korea would have to terminate the program before any further progress could be made in U.S.-D.P.R.K. relations. The United States also made clear that if this program were verifiably eliminated, it would be prepared to work with North Korea on the development of a fundamentally new relationship. Subsequently, the D.P.R.K. has denied the existence of a uranium enrichment program. In November 2002, the member countries of KEDO's Executive Board agreed to suspend heavy fuel oil shipments to North Korea pending a resolution of the nuclear dispute.

In late 2002 and early 2003, North Korea terminated the freeze on its existing plutonium-based nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, expelled IAEA inspectors, removed seals and monitoring equipment at Yongbyon, announced its withdrawal from the NPT, and resumed reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium for weapons purposes. North Korea announced that it was taking these steps to provide itself with a deterrent force in the face of U.S. threats and U.S. "hostile policy." Beginning in mid-2003, the North repeatedly claimed to have completed reprocessing of the spent fuel rods previously frozen at Yongbyon and publicly said that the resulting fissile material would be used to bolster its "nuclear deterrent force." There is no independent confirmation of North Korea's claims. The KEDO Executive Board suspended work on the LWR Project beginning December 1, 2003.

President Bush has made clear that the United States has no intention to invade or attack North Korea. The President has also stressed that the United States seeks a peaceful end to North Korea's nuclear program in cooperation with North Korea's neighbors, who are directly affected by the threat the nuclear program poses to regional stability and security.

In early 2003, the United States proposed multilateral talks on the North Korean nuclear issue. North Korea initially opposed such a process, maintaining that the nuclear dispute was purely a bilateral matter between the United States and the D.P.R.K. However, under pressure from its neighbors and with the active involvement of China, North Korea agreed to three-party talks with China and the United States in Beijing in April 2003 and to Six-Party Talks with the United States, China, R.O.K., Japan and Russia in August 2003, also in Beijing. During the August 2003 round of Six-Party Talks, North Korea agreed to the eventual elimination of its nuclear programs if the United States were first willing to sign a bilateral "non-aggression treaty" and meet various other conditions, including the provision of substantial amounts of aid and normalization of relations. The North Korean proposal was unacceptable to the United States, which insisted on a multilateral resolution to the issue and opposed provision of benefits before the D.P.R.K.'s complete denuclearization. In October 2003, President Bush said he would consider a multilateral written security guarantee in the context of North Korea's complete, verifiable, and irreversible elimination of its nuclear weapons program.

China hosted a second round of Six-Party Talks in Beijing in February 2004. The United States saw the results as positive, including the announced intention of all parties to hold a third round by the end of June and to form a working group to maintain momentum between plenary sessions.

At the third round of Six-Party Talks in Beijing, in June 2004, the United States tabled a comprehensive and substantive proposal aimed at resolving the nuclear issue. All parties agreed to hold a fourth round of talks by the end of September 2004. Despite its commitment, the D.P.R.K. refused to return to the table, and in the months that followed issued a series of provocative statements. In a February 10, 2005, Foreign Ministry statement, the D.P.R.K. declared that it had "manufactured nuclear weapons" and was "indefinitely suspending" its participation in the Six-Party Talks. In Foreign Ministry statements in March, the D.P.R.K. said it would no longer be bound by its voluntary moratorium on ballistic missile launches, and declared itself a nuclear weapons state.

Following intense diplomatic efforts by the United States and other parties, the fourth round of Six-Party Talks were held in Beijing over a period of 20 days from July-September 2005, with a recess period in August. Discussions resulted in all parties agreeing to a Joint Statement of Principles. In the September 19, 2005 Joint Statement, the six parties unanimously reaffirmed the goal of verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner. The D.P.R.K. for the first time committed to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and to return, at an early date, to the NPT and to IAEA safeguards. The other parties agreed to provide economic cooperation and energy assistance. The United States and the D.P.R.K. agreed to take steps to normalize relations subject to bilateral policies, which for the United States includes our concerns over North Korea's ballistic missile programs and deplorable human rights conditions. While the Joint Statement provides a vision of the end-point of the Six-Party process, much work lies ahead to implement the elements of the agreement.

A fifth round of talks began in November 2005, but ended inconclusively as the D.P.R.K. began a boycott of the Six-Party Talks, citing the "U.S.' hostile policy" and specifically U.S. law enforcement action that had led in September to a freeze of North Korean accounts in Macau's Banco Delta Asia (BDA). The United States held discussions in Kuala Lumpur (July 2006) and New York in (September 2006) with other Six-Party partners, except North Korea, along with representatives from other regional powers in the Asia-Pacific region, to discuss Northeast Asian security issues, including North Korea. On July 4-5, 2006 (local Korea time), the D.P.R.K. launched seven ballistic missiles, including six short- and medium-range missiles and one of possible intercontinental range. In response, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1695 on July 15, which demands that the D.P.R.K. suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program and reestablish existing commitments to a moratorium on missile launching. The resolution also requires all UN Member States, in accordance with their national legal authorities and consistent with international law, to exercise vigilance and prevent missile and missile-related items, materials, goods and technology from being transferred to the D.P.R.K.'s missile or weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, prevent the procurement of missiles or related items, materials, goods and services from the D.P.R.K., and the transfer of any financial resources in relation to the D.P.R.K.'s missile or WMD programs. The D.P.R.K. immediately rejected the resolution.

On October 9, 2006, North Korea announced the successful test of a nuclear explosive device, verified by the United States on October 11. In response, the United Nations Security Council, citing Chapter VII of the UN Charter, unanimously passed Resolution 1718, condemning North Korea and imposing sanctions on certain luxury goods and trade of military units, WMD and missile-related parts, and technology transfers. <ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6032525.stm</ref>

The Six-Party Talks resumed in December 2006 after a 13-month hiatus. Following a bilateral meeting between the United States and D.P.R.K. in Berlin in January 2007, another round of Six-Party Talks was held in February 2007. On February 13, 2007, the parties reached an agreement on "Initial Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement" in which North Korea agreed to shut down and seal its Yongbyon nuclear facility, including the reprocessing facility and to invite back IAEA personnel to conduct all necessary monitoring and verification of these actions as agreed between the IAEA and the D.P.R.K. The other five parties agreed to provide emergency energy assistance to North Korea in the amount of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in the initial phase and the equivalent of 950,000 tons of HFO in the next phase of North Korea's denuclearization. The six parties also established five working groups to form specific plans for implementing the Joint Statement in the following areas: denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, normalization of D.P.R.K.-U.S. relations, normalization of D.P.R.K.-Japan relations, economic and energy cooperation, and a Northeast Asia peace and security mechanism. All parties agreed that the working groups would meet within 30 days of the agreement, which they did. The agreement also envisions the directly-related parties negotiating a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate separate forum. As part of the initial actions, North Korea invited IAEA Director General ElBaradei to Pyongyang in early March for preliminary discussions on the return of the IAEA to the D.P.R.K.

The sixth round of Six-Party Talks took place on March 19-23, 2007. The parties reported on the first meetings of the five working groups. At the invitation of the D.P.R.K., Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill visited Pyongyang in June 2007 as part of ongoing consultations with the six parties on implementation of the Initial Actions agreement. In July 2007, the D.P.R.K. shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility, as well as an uncompleted reactor at Taechon, and IAEA personnel returned to the D.P.R.K. to monitor and verify the shut-down and to seal the facility. In July 2007, the R.O.K. provided the first shipment of 50,000 tons of HFO under the Initial Actions agreement. The Six-Party Heads of Delegation met July 18-20, 2007 to discuss implementation of the D.P.R.K.'s next phase commitments, including the D.P.R.K.'s provision of a complete declaration of all nuclear programs and disablement of existing nuclear facilities. All five working groups met in August and September to discuss detailed plans for implementation of the next phase of the Initial Actions agreement, and will report the results of those discussions to the next Six-Party plenary meeting. As part of the denuclearization process, the D.P.R.K. invited a team of experts from the United States, China, and Russia to visit the Yongbyon nuclear facility in September 2007 to discuss specific steps that could be taken to disable the facility.

==Military==

Although North Korea has no enemies, its government says it needs nuclear weapons as a deterrent against "the U.S. nuclear threat".<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/ap_on_re_as/as_nkorea_parliament North Korea denounces new Obama nuclear strategy]"</ref>

North Korea now has the fourth-largest army in the world. It has an estimated 1.21 million armed personnel, compared to about 680,000 in the South. Military spending is estimated at as much as a quarter of GNP, with about 20% of men ages 17-54 in the regular armed forces. North Korean forces have a substantial numerical advantage over the South (between 2 and 3 to 1) in several key categories of offensive weapons--tanks, long-range artillery, and armored personnel carriers. The North has perhaps the world's second-largest special operations force, designed for insertion behind the lines in wartime. While the North has a relatively impressive fleet of submarines, its surface fleet has a very limited capability. Its air force has twice the number of aircraft as the South, but, except for a few advanced fighters, the North's air force is obsolete.<ref>[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/air-force-equipment.htm North Korea Air Force Equipment]</ref> The North deploys the bulk of its forces well forward, along the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Several North Korean military tunnels under the DMZ were discovered in the 1970s.

Over the last several years, North Korea has moved more of its rear-echelon troops to hardened bunkers closer to the DMZ. Given the proximity of Seoul to the DMZ (some 25 miles), South Korean and U.S. forces are likely to have little warning of any attack. The United States and South Korea continue to believe that the U.S. troop presence in South Korea remains an effective deterrent. North Korea's nuclear weapons program has also been a source of international tension (see below, Reunification Efforts Since 1971; Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula).

In 1953, the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) was created to oversee and enforce the terms of the armistice. Over the past decade, North Korea has sought to dismantle the MAC in a push for a new "peace mechanism" on the peninsula. In April 1994, it declared the MAC void and withdrew its representatives.

==Economy==
North Korea's economy declined sharply in the 1990s with the end of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of bloc-trading with the countries of the former socialist bloc. Gross national income per capita is estimated to have fallen by about one-third between 1990 and 2002. The economy has since stabilized and shown some modest growth in recent years, which may be reflective of increased inter-Korean economic cooperation. Output and living standards, however, remain far below 1990 levels. Other centrally-planned economies in similar situations opted for domestic economic reform and liberalization of trade and investment. North Korea formalized some modest wage and price reforms in 2002, and has increasingly tolerated markets and a small private sector as the state-run distribution system has deteriorated. The regime, however, seems determined to maintain control. In October 2005, emboldened by an improved harvest and increased food donations from South Korea, the North Korean Government banned private grain sales and announced a return to centralized food rationing. Reports indicate this effort to reassert state control and to control inflation has been largely ineffective. Another factor contributing to the economy's poor performance is the disproportionately large share of GDP (thought to be about one-fourth) that North Korea devotes to its military.

North Korean industry is operating at only a small fraction of capacity due to lack of fuel, spare parts, and other inputs. Agriculture is now 30% of GDP, even though agricultural output has not recovered to early 1990 levels. The infrastructure is generally poor and outdated, and the energy sector has collapsed. About 80% of North Korea's terrain consists of moderately high mountain ranges and partially forested mountains and hills separated by deep, narrow valleys and small, cultivated plains. The most rugged areas are the north and east coasts. Good harbors are found on the eastern coast. Pyongyang, the capital, near the country's west coast, is located on the Taedong River.
*GNI (2004 estimate): $20.8 billion; 26.7% in agriculture and fishery, 27.2% in mining, 13.7% in manufacturing, 32.3% in services (2004).
*Per capita GNI (2004): $914.
*Agriculture: Products--[[rice]], [[potato]]es, [[soybean]]s, [[cattle]], [[pig]]s, [[pork]] and [[egg]]s.
*Mining and manufacturing: Types--military products; machine building; chemicals; mining (gold, coal, iron ore, limestone, magnesite, etc.); metallurgy; textiles; food processing; tourism.
*Trade (2006): Exports--$1.47 billion: minerals, non-ferrous metals, garments, machinery, electric and electronic products, chemicals, precious metals, wood products, and shellfish products. The D.P.R.K. is also thought to earn hundreds of millions of dollars from the unreported sale of missiles, narcotics and counterfeit cigarettes, and other illicit activities. Imports--$2.88 billion: minerals, petroleum, machinery, textiles, chemicals, non-ferrous metals, and animal products.
*Major trading partners (2006): (1) China, (2) R.O.K., (3) Thailand, (4) Russia and (5) Japan.

North Korea experienced a severe famine following record floods in the summer of 1995 and continues to suffer from chronic food shortages and malnutrition. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) provided substantial emergency food assistance beginning in 1995 (2 million tons of which came from the United States), but the North Korean Government suspended the WFP emergency program at the end of 2005. It has since permitted the WFP to resume operations on a greatly reduced scale through a Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation. External food aid now comes primarily from China and South Korea in the form of grants and long-term concessional loans. South Korea also donates fertilizer and other materials, while China provides energy. South Korea suspended food and fertilizer shipments to the North in response to North Korea's missile launches in July 2006. However, when severe floods later that month threatened to produce another humanitarian crisis, South Korea announced a one-time donation of 100,000 tons of food, matching contributions from South Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs). South Korea resumed fertilizer shipments to North Korea in late March 2007. In early July, South Korea announced that it would provide $20 million worth of food assistance to the D.P.R.K. through the World Food Program. South Korea also resumed bilateral food aid in June 2007. Following severe flooding in North Korea in August 2007, South Korea announced that it would provide $7.5 million worth of emergency aid materials to North Korea, and $3.2 million to NGOs providing flood assistance in North Korea. The R.O.K. also provided $39.4 million in construction materials to the D.P.R.K. to assist with reconstruction efforts following the floods. The United States provided $100,000 to two U.S. NGOs for antibiotics in the wake of the floods. The United States also announced that is was prepared to engage in discussions with the D.P.R.K. of monitoring arrangements to provide additional substantial humanitarian assistance, including food aid, to the country.

====Development Policy====
In 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and termination of subsidized trade arrangements with Russia, other former Communist states, and China, North Korea announced the creation of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the northeast regions of Najin (sometime rendered "Rajin"), Chongjin, and Sonbong. Problems with infrastructure, bureaucracy, and uncertainties about investment security and viability have hindered growth and development of this SEZ. The government announced in 2002 plans to establish a Special Administrative Region (SAR) in Sinuiju, at the western end of the North Korea-China border. However, the government has taken few concrete steps to establish the Sinuiju SAR, and its future is uncertain. In addition, North Korea and South Korea have established a special economic zone near the city of Kaesong, where about 20 South Korean companies operate manufacturing facilities employing North Korean workers (see further information under North-South Economic Ties).

North Korea implemented limited micro- and macroeconomic reforms in 2002, including increases in prices and wages, changes in foreign investment laws, a steep currency devaluation, and reforms in industry and management. Though the changes have failed to stimulate recovery of the industrial sector, there are reports of changed economic behavior at the enterprise and individual level. One unintended consequence of the 2002 changes has been severe inflation. An increasing number of North Koreans now try to work in the informal sector to cope with growing hardship and reduced government support.

====North-South Economic Ties====
Two-way trade between North and South Korea, legalized in 1988, had risen to more than $1 billion by 2005, much of it related to out-processing or assembly work undertaken by South Korean firms in the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC). A significant portion of the total also includes donated goods provided to the North as humanitarian assistance or as part of inter-Korean cooperation projects. Although business-based and processing-on-commission transactions continued to grow, the bulk of South Korean exports to North Korea in 2006 was still non-commercial.

Since the June 2000 North-South summit, North and South Korea have reconnected their east and west coast railroads and roads where they cross the DMZ and are working to improve these transportation routes. North and South Korea conducted tests of the east and west coast railroads on May 17, 2007. Much of the work done in North Korea has been funded by the South. The west coast rail and road are complete as far north as the KIC (six miles north of the DMZ), but little work is being done north of Kaesong. On the east coast, the road is complete but the rail line is far from operational. Since 2003, tour groups have been using the east coast road to travel from South Korea to Mt. Geumgang in North Korea, where cruise ship-based tours had been permitted since 1998.

As of August 2007, 26 South Korean firms were manufacturing goods in the KIC, employing nearly 17,000 North Korean workers. Most of the goods are sold in South Korea; a small quantity is being exported to foreign markets. Ground was broken on the complex in June 2003, and the first products were shipped from the KIC in December 2004. Plans envision 250 firms employing 350,000 workers by 2012.

==History==
The Korean Peninsula was first populated by peoples of a Tungusic branch of the Ural-Altaic language family, who migrated from the northwestern regions of Asia. Some of these peoples also populated parts of northeast China (Manchuria); Koreans and Manchurians still show physical similarities. Koreans are racially and linguistically homogeneous. Although there are no indigenous minorities in North Korea, there is a small Chinese community (about 50,000) and some 1,800 Japanese wives who accompanied the roughly 93,000 Koreans returning to the North from Japan between 1959 and 1962. Although dialects exist, the Korean spoken throughout the peninsula is mutually comprehensible. In North Korea, the Korean alphabet (hangul) is used exclusively.

Korea's traditional religions are Buddhism and Shamanism. Christian missionaries arrived as early as the 16th century, but it was not until the 19th century that major missionary activity began. Pyongyang was a center of missionary activity, and there was a relatively large Christian population in the north before 1945. Although religious groups exist in North Korea today, the government severely restricts religious activity.

By the first century AD, the Korean Peninsula was divided into the kingdoms of Shilla, Koguryo, and Paekche. In 668 AD, the Shilla kingdom unified the peninsula. The Koryo dynasty--from which Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century derived the Western name "Korea"--succeeded the Shilla kingdom in 935. The Choson dynasty, ruled by members of the Yi clan, supplanted Koryo in 1392 and lasted until Japan annexed Korea in 1910.

Throughout its history, Korea has been invaded, influenced, and fought over by its larger neighbors. Korea was under Mongolian occupation from 1231 until the early 14th century. The unifier of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, launched major invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597. When Western powers focused "gunboat" diplomacy on Korea in the mid-19th century, Korea's rulers adopted a closed-door policy, earning Korea the title of "Hermit Kingdom." Though the Choson dynasty recognized China's hegemony in East Asia, Korea was independent until the late 19th century. At that time, China sought to block growing Japanese influence on the Korean Peninsula and Russian pressure for commercial gains there. The competition produced the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. Japan emerged victorious from both wars and in 1910 annexed Korea as part of the growing Japanese empire. Japanese colonial administration was characterized by tight control from Tokyo and ruthless efforts to supplant Korean language and culture. Organized Korean resistance during the colonial era was generally unsuccessful, and Japan remained firmly in control of the Peninsula until the end of World War II in 1945. The surrender of Japan in August 1945 led to the immediate division of Korea into two occupation zones, with the United States administering the southern half of the peninsula and the U.S.S.R. taking over the area to the north of the 38th parallel. This division was meant to be temporary until the United States, U.K., Soviet Union, and China could arrange a trusteeship administration.

In December 1945, a conference was convened in Moscow to discuss the future of Korea. A five-year trusteeship was discussed, and a joint Soviet-American commission was established. The commission met intermittently in Seoul but deadlocked over the issue of establishing a national government. In September 1947, with no solution in sight, the United States submitted the Korean question to the UN General Assembly. Initial hopes for a unified, independent Korea quickly evaporated as the politics of the Cold War and domestic opposition to the trusteeship plan resulted in the 1948 establishment of two separate nations with diametrically opposed political, economic, and social systems. Elections were held in the South under UN observation, and on August 15, 1948, the Republic of Korea (R.O.K.) was established in the South. Syngman Rhee, a nationalist leader, became the Republic's first president. On September 9, 1948, the North established the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.) headed by then-Premier Kim Il-sung, who had been cultivated and supported by the U.S.S.R.

Soviet supervision over the setting up and initial administration of the North Korean government was vested in a Soviet Civil Administration Bureau which carried out policies formulated in the Politburo and passed down through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Political Administration Department of the Sovie [[Red Army]]. Through ministrations of this agency, a veritable flood of Soviet advisors permeated the governmental, economic, social and educational structures of North Korea. Although outwardly maintaining an advisory status, Soviet advisors, in fact, exercised control and supervision over all policy matters. In this manner the USSR created a satellite state which was politically subservient and subject to economic manipulation.

By 1949 nationalization of banking, heavy industry and communications, the agrarian [[redistribution]] program and the political monopoly of unions had taken place and the new regime demonstrated a willingness to lower the standard of living of its people by exporting vitally needed foodstuffs and raw materials in order to obtain the instruments of war.

====Korean War of 1950-53====
:''Main article: '''[[Korean War]]'''''
Almost immediately after establishment of the D.P.R.K., guerrilla warfare, border clashes, and naval battles erupted between the two Koreas. North Korean forces launched a massive surprise attack and invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. The United Nations, in accordance with the terms of its Charter, engaged in its first collective action and established the UN Command (UNC), to which 16 member nations sent troops and assistance. Next to South Korea, the United States contributed the largest contingent of forces to this international effort.

North Korean forces quickly overran Southern ones, capturing almost the entire peninsula save the southern city of Busan. To relieve the Busan perimeter, U.S. General [[Douglas MacArthur]] led a massive amphibious landing at Inchon, over 100 miles behind the North Korean flanks. Kim's forces were pushed back and the battle line fluctuated north and south, and after large numbers of Chinese "People's Volunteers" intervened to assist the North, the battle line stabilized north of Seoul near the 38th parallel.

Armistice negotiations began in July 1951, but hostilities continued until July 27, 1953. On that date, at Panmunjom, the military commanders of the North Korean People's Army, the Chinese People's Volunteers, and the UNC signed an armistice agreement. Neither the United States nor South Korea is a signatory to the armistice per se, although both adhere to it through the UNC. No comprehensive peace agreement has replaced the 1953 armistice pact.

====Atrocities of the Korean War====
[[Fred Schwarz]] wrote:
:''When the Communists retreated in North Korea, they took with them all the able-bodied personnel to serve as laborers. Those who could not stand the rigors of the northward journey-- old men and women, pregnant women, very young children and babies-- they massacred and buried in a [[mass grave]] if they belonged to the untrustworthy social classes. The advancing American troops time and again found mass graves filled with the bodies of those murdered by the Communists.''<ref> [http://www.schwarzreport.org/yct/01ycttc.htm You Can Trust the Communists - To Be Communists]
</ref>

==Books==
*''The Aquariums of Pyong Yang'' by Kang Chol-hwan
*''Eyes of the Tailless Animals'' (1999) by Soon Ok Lee
*''North Korea'' by Bruce Cuming
*[http://www.time.com/time/columnist/arnold/article/0,9565,1108801,00.html ''Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea''] (graphic novel) by Guy Deslisle
*[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/124221.Don_Oberdorfer ''The Two Koreas''] by Don Oberdorfer

== External links ==
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ6E3cShcVU Documentary on current conditions in North Korea]
*[http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/korea_north/index.html Korea, North - 2007] Geographic.org
*[http://www.worldchristianministries.org/idop/idop3.asp Testimony of a high-ranking defector]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ An Open Secret: the Gulags of the Russian Federation (the North Korean camps on Russian territory)]

== References ==
<references/>

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}
source= [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2792.htm]
{{Asian Countries}}
[[Category:Dictatorships]]
[[Category:Communist States]]
[[Category:Korea]]

Judaism

2013-04-14T20:17:09Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[Image:StarofDavid.gif|right|thumb|The Star of David, a symbol of Judaism]]
'''Judaism''' was the first [[monotheistic religion]],{{citation needed}} dating back to around 2000 BC.{{citation needed}} Like [[Christianity]] and [[Islam]], Judaism is an [[Abrahamic faith]], tracing its origins to [[Abraham]]. Judaism was the first of the Abrahamic faiths. The core of the Judaism as it exists today took shape from a later time period when [[Moses]] led the [[Hebrews]] from [[Egypt]] and climbed [[Mount Sinai]], bringing back the [[Ten Commandments]].

The five books of Moses (the [[Torah]]), in which the [[Mosaic Law]] is found, are generally considered to be the core of the Jewish Scripture, and are supplemented by the works of the prophets and other writings. The works of the prophets are grouped under Nevi'im, and the other writings are known as Ketuvim. The first letters of each part combined were used to create the name of the full Hebrew Bible: the Tanakh, which Christians call the [[Old Testament]]. The [[Talmud]] is another ancient Jewish writing considered by some Jews to contain traditions dating back to Moses himself, yet the Talmud also contains discussion by rabbis involving extensive disagreement and lively discussion, over interpretation of these traditions. The Talmud is not part of the [[Bible]] and the degree to which the Talmud itself is considered to be inspired varies across Judaism, with the [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] generally giving it the most weight. Most Muslims and Christians, including [[Messianic Jews]], however, consider the theological findings and argumentation of the Talmud to be invalid after the advent of the birth of [[Jesus Christ]].

Tikkun Olam -to help “repair the world”- is a Hebrew phrase originated in the early rabbinic period.

==Sabbath==
[[Image:Menora exb HSTR7337.jpg|right|thumb|Yarmulke and Menorah]]
Many Jews observe a weekly day of rest (the [[Sabbath]]) that begins shortly before sundown on Friday and ends after sunset on Saturday. During this time no work may be done, business transactions are forbidden, and light switches are not to be turned on or off. Jews celebrate the Sabbath by lighting candles before the Sabbath, singing songs, going to synagogue, called shul, by some, and learning.

==Branches within Judaism==
There are many different branches of Judaism. There are five large branches:
*[[Orthodox Judaism]]
*[[Conservative Judaism]]
*[[Reform Judaism]]
*[[Reconstructionist Judaism]]
*[[Messianic Judaism]]

==Ethnicities==
[[File:Remarkable Jews.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Albert Einstein]], [[Maimonides]], [[Golda Meir]] and Emma Lazarus (American poet born in New York City)]]
*[[Sephardi]] Jews.
*[[Ethiopian Jews]]
*[[Mizrahi (sometimes spelled Mizrachi)|Mizrahi]] Jews.
**[[Yemenite Jews]]
*[[Ashkenazi]] Jews.

<blockquote>
The traditional explanation, and the one given in the [[Torah]], is that the Jews are a nation. The Hebrew word, believe it or not, is ''"goy."'' The Torah and the rabbis used this term not in the modern sense meaning a territorial and political entity, but in the ancient sense meaning a group of people with a common history, a common destiny, and a sense that we are all connected to each other. <ref> [http://www.jewfaq.org/judaism.htm What Is Judaism?] </ref>
</blockquote>
{{Clear}}

===The Diaspora===
"Diaspora" (Greek meaning "seeded throughout") is the term used to refer to the various dispersions of the Jews throughout the world through the eras of history. Its Hebrew linguistic forerunner is "Galut" meaning the "uncovering", betraying the understanding that being exiled from the Land of Israel is an exposing of Israel to vulnerability and danger. Some commonly known "Galuyot" (plural for Galut) are:

* the forced exile and assimilation among other peoples of the Northern Tribes of Israel by the Assyrians in 721, 722. Modern Israel has recognized among the in-gathering of this exile (Kibbuts Galuyot) the ''Bnei Menashe'' (Sons of Manessaeh) of northern [[India]]. These members of the "Lost Tribe" are now allowed to freely immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return. ''(see [[Religion in India]])''

* the ''Falashas'' of [[Ethiopia]], among whom, like the Bnei Menashe, Jewish practices such as circumcision at 8 days and the keeping of Passover are maintained by those eligible for citizenship under the Israeli Law of Return. The are racially native African in appearance. They believe themselves to have become Jewish from the days of Solomon and the Queen of Ethiopia. That was the basis for the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selase (Holy Trinity) taking the title "Lion of the Tribe of Judah".

* The Galut of Babylon, the so called "''Iraqis''" exiled by the Babylonians at the time of their conquest of Judah and Jerusalem (c. 538 B.C.) This Galut developed a rival to Palestinian Jewry of the first centuries and provided the second corpus of religious literature to the developing Talmud. This was in the common language of Babyon at the time - Aramaic. This corpus came to be called the Gemara ("completion"). The [[Gemara]] dates from about 200 A.D.to 500 A.D. The Gemara and the earlier Palestinian Hebrew corpus, the Mishna, dating from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D. comprise the Talmud, which regulated most of Jewish internal life, until the western European "emancipation" and assimilation of the Jews - starting in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Talmud is still regulatory for Orthodox Jews.

*The Galut of the Jews by the Roman [[Titus]] after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D. They were triumphantly displayed in Rome and dispersed in the lands along the Rhine Valley known in the Hebrew tongue as Ashkenaz - which is known now as Germany. There they learned the language of the land which developed into Modern German. The Jews called their language, the early stage of German, Yiddish. From the Rhine, many of the "''Ashkenazis''" moved (were moved) to Eastern Europe, many fleeing from there, to America, to Israel, to Latin America, etc. learning new languages, but also speaking their old language, not Hebrew, but Yiddish. This, with the common religion, enabled the fostering of unity and brotherhood.

*the 1492 A.D. exile from [[Spain]], where the Jews had previously settled in the time of the [[Moors]] and some attaining to high positions and appointments as physicians, prime ministers, and poets under the Islamic conquest. This was the Golden Age of Jewry in Spain. At their expulsion ("gerush") from Spain they settled mainly around the Mediterranean basin - North Africa, Greece, Turkey, and also many going to Holland and from there to the American Colonies. The first synagogue in America was created due to this dispersion. These Jews soon were speaking the language of the their host countries - Arabic, Turkish etc. but also speaking the language of Old Spain. "Spain" in Hebrew is Sefarad, so the language is Sephardic and the dispersion is of the ''Sephardim'' (sometimes spelled Sepharadim).

*the Yemenites (''Temanim''). Yemen means "right (direction)" in Semitic languages. When facing the temple from the west, the "right" points south. Therefore, "Teiman" also means "south". This dispersion is the southerly dispersion to what is now Yemen, gaining momentum during the Himyaritic Kindom in Yemen which had adopted Judaism. With the founding of the Modern State of Israel, most Yemenite Jews have immigrated to Israel and speak Arabic as well as Hebrew.

The term "''Mizrachi''" means "easterner" and it covers a number of eastern dispersions as opposed to the Ashkenazi who were westerners - from Europe. Coming into Israel during Ottoman Turk rule (1517-1917), many immigrating Jewish families who were not European were given the name Mizrahi by the Turkish immigration authorities as they were all "lumped together" as Easterners.

The Return of the Jews to Israel is seen as a fulfillment of the Scriptures and is called Kibbutz Galuyot, the ingathering of the Exiles. Here are some of the scriptures that both tell about the ingathering of the exiles and which have provided a major influence for the some of the dispersions to return to the Land of Israel:

" I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west, To the north I will say 'Give them up', and to the south, 'Do not hold them'. Bring back my sons from far away, my daughters from the end of the earth. Isaiah 43: 5,6

"Those whom Adonai has redeemed return, they come to Zion shouting for joy. everlasting joy in their faces, joy and gladness go with them, sorrow and lament are ended." Isaiah 51:11

"He who has scattered Israel, gathers him, He guards them as a shepherd guards his flock...they shall come back from the enemy country, There is hope for your descendants" Jeremiah 31: 10,16

"The Lord says this: 'I am going to take the sons of Israel from the nations, where they have gone. I shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil. I shall make them into one nation and into My own land and on the mountains of Israel.'" . Exekiel 37:21,22

==Main Holidays==
[[File:People at a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.jpg|thumb|At a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.]]
:''Main article: [[Jewish holidays]]''

*'''[[Rosh Hashanah]]'''—New Years. Marks the creation of the world.

*'''[[Yom Kippur]]'''—the Day of Atonement. Observant Jews consume no food or drink for the entire day.

*'''[[Pesach]]'''—celebrating the liberation from Egyptian slavery. Observant Jews hold a special festive meal, called a ''Seder,'' on the first and second night of Passover and do not eat leavened bread for the duration of the festival.

*'''Shavuot'''— Pentecost or Feast of Weeks. Traditionally celebrates God's giving the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai.

*'''Sukkot''' —Tabernacles or Feast of Booths. Observant Jews eat and sleep in temporary shelters shaded by cut vegetation.

*'''Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah'''—The day after Sukkot is a separate holiday, known as the "Eighth Day Feast." It also marks the completion of the cycle of reading the Torah in synagogues. The end of Deuteronomy is read, followed by the first chapter of Genesis.

*'''[[Purim]]'''—celebrates the thwarting of a plot to kill all Jews it is recorded in the Book of Esther, which is read aloud in its entirety in the synagogue.

*'''Tisha B'Av'''—also known as the Ninth of Av, 9th of Av, is a fast day that mourns the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

*'''[[Chanukah]]''' (there are several English spellings)—celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple after the revolt against the Greeks recorded in the Talmud and other non-Biblical texts. Jews light candles each night for eight nights, adding one candle each night. Chanukah is not a holiday recorded in the Bible and is considered a minor holiday from a religious standpoint, however from a secular Jewish perspective it has taken on a position of great prominence in modern times passing all other holidays as far as degree to which it is celebrated.

==Calendar==
The Jewish calendar combines lunar and solar features. During Temple times, months began when the new moon was sighted in Jerusalem. An extra month was added when needed to keep the Pesach festival in the spring. Today a complex algorithm, over a thousand years old, is used to determine when months begin. As a result, the dates of the Jewish holidays in the civil calendar vary from year to year. A day on the Hebrew calendar lasts from one sundown to the next, so for purposes of religious observances a day begins at sundown of the preceding civil day.

==Jewish Scripture==
Jewish Scripture consists of 24 books, broken down into three sections:

*'''[[Torah]]'''—The Five Books of [[Moses]]: [[Genesis]] (Bereshit), [[Exodus]] (Shemot), [[Leviticus]] (Vayikra), [[Numbers]] (Bamidbar) and [[Deuteronomy]] (Devarim).

*'''Nevi'im''' —The Prophets: Joshua (Yehoshua), Judges (Shoftim), Samuel (Shmuel), Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor prophets

*'''Ketuvim'''—The Writings: [[Psalms]], Proverbs, Job), Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, [[Esther (Biblical book)|Esther]], [[Daniel (Biblical book)|Daniel]], Ezra, Chronicles.

The Torah is divided into portions that are read during synagogue services over the course of the liturgical year. Jews refer to all 24 scrolls as the ''Tanakh,'' an acronym of the names of the three sections. The Old Testament is the Tanakh, except with some different naming and a different ordering than the Jewish version. Some Jews find the term Old Testament to be offensive, as its meaning can be interpreted to mean the covenant of God with the Jews has been superseded and no longer applies.

==The Twelve Tribes of Israel==
The most famous of the tribes of Israel is Judah. From this tribe came [[King David]] ''“your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever”'' 2 Samuel 7:16, '' Acts 13:34. No matter what tribe you originate from, all are considered Israeli.

[[Jacob]], grandson of [[Abraham]] and son of [[Isaac]], came to be known as the father of Israel, for it is written that God changed his name to Israel. <ref>[http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/tribeisr.htm The Tribes Of Israel by Wayne Blank] The Church of God Bible Studsy</ref> The descendants of these twelve 'sons' of Jacob became the twelve tribes of Israel.

In Northern Israel [[Gad]], [[Reuben]], [[Simeon]], [[Dan]], [[Naphtali]], [[Asher]], [[Issachar]], [[Zebulun]] and [[Joseph]]. In Southern Israel, the tribes [[Benjamin]] and [[Judah]]. The [[Levi]] were to serve as as the priests and their assistance for all tribes having their own levitical cities within the other tribes while having no land as inheritance for for themselves.

Each tribe was composed of a group of families, united by blood ties and constituting a social and political unit. As time went on, the stronger tribes tended to absorb the weaker ones. <ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=762510356&vv=450 Twelve Tribes of Israel] MSN Encarta</ref>
After the death of King Solomon, and in the time of his son, Rehoboam, the twelve tribes divided into two camps. The south was known as [[Judah]] with Jerusalem as their capital, while the ten northern tribes made up the kingdom of Israel whose capital was [[Samaria]]. In 721/2 B.C. , the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered and the elite and powerful taken away by the Assyrians (leaving the weak and powerless) and resettled among various client kingdoms of their empire. The Assyrians, in like manner, settled other conquered peoples in various places of conquered Israel in order to dilute and weaken the population causing them to be compliant to the Assyrian overlords. This is how the "Samarians" were to arise, present in the time of Jesus and and present to this day - a mixed semi-Judaized population with their religious center on Mt. Gerizim in Samaria rivaling Jerusalem. The northern dispersion came to be called popularly "the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel". But some of the "10 Lost Tribes" were not lost. At the time of Assyrian conquest of Israel, archaeology reveals, the city walls of the capitol city of the Southern Kingdom, Jerusalem, were suddenly and greatly expanded. This is because, it is thought, of the sudden influx to the southern brothers of the fleeing northerners. See also in the Diaspora section above, the Bnei Menashe, and see [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/973487.html]

The Southern Kingdom was conquered by Babylonians in 586/7 B.C. with much population taken to Babylon, which was to become a center for Judaism (and the Babylonian Talmud) rivaling Jerusalem itself. Cyrus, Emperor of Persia was to allow the Jews to return to their ancestral homeland, but many Jews preferred to remain in Babylon (most of these "Iraqis" would return to Israel with the erection of the modern State of Israel).

Alexander the Great, 333 B.C. would wrest the Middle East, and "Judah" with it, from the hands of the Persians, and after him, at the breakup of his Empire into Seleucid (northern) and Ptolomaic (southern) parts, the Seleucids took control of the Judah and Galilee (bringing "[[Hellenism]]" - the amalgamation of Greek with local cultures), and the occasion for the the revolt of the Jews against Seleucid overlord Antiochus and the beginning of the celebration among the Jews of [[Hanukah]] - the remembrance of the successful revolt, the setting up once again of a Jewish Kingdom in the promised land, and the re-dedication ("Hanukah") of the Temple (which had been desecrated). In 63 A.D., Pompey and the Roman rule would wrest power from the Hellenistic Greeks, and thus the Roman rule in the Land at the time of Jesus. The Kingdom of Judah, with its King Herod, was intended by Rome to be a buffer state between Rome and its hated adversary Kingdom - that of Persia. In this context there arose, another movement, followers of "the way" of Jesus, the forefront of another Kingdom, that was not of this world, the leading servants of which, would sit on the seats of the now ''12 tribes'' of Israel, and knowing themselves, as the "Israel of God".

Note: Among modern Jews, there is no knowledge of descent from any of the particular tribe of the 12 tribes of Israel, except Jews with the family name of Levi or Cohen (and a very few others). "Levi" is from the tribe of Levites and means "accompanier", that is the ones who accompany the priest and offering assistance in the service of the Temple. "Cohen" means priest. With the last great dispersion from the Holy Land, that of 70 AD at the hands of the Romans, with its destruction of "the House" - the Temple of God, the levitical and priestly families, now exiled to Rome and Italy were careful to record and remember their genealogies back to the tribe of Levi, as it would be they who would once again be called to function when God when would make possible the return to the Land of Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple.

==Post Biblical Jewish Development and Literature==
The Jewish [[canon]] of Scripture was defined at the Jamnia (Yavneh) on the Mediterranean coast of Israel at 90A.D., about two decades after the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. Jews now also lived in great numbers outside of the Land of Israel, particularly in Mesopotamia (the Land between the Rivers of the Euphrates and the Tigris), and in Alexandria, Egypt. Mesopotamian Jewry, with its large core from the exile to Babylon continually added to, was mainly Aramaic speaking while Egyptian Jewry was Greek speaking. Aramaic Jewry began the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into [[Aramaic]], this came to be known as the [[Peshitta]] ("simple" or common). This development was accelerated particularly when the queen of [[Adiabene]], Helena (Shlomzion HaMalka, converted with others to Judaism. The Old Testament Peshitta (there is also the New Testament Peshitta as believers in Jesus translated the Greek New Testament into Aramaic) contains influence from the Jewish literature known as the [[Targum]]. Queen Helena was buried in Jerusalem around 70 A.D.

The Alexandrian Jews also translated, even earlier, the Torah into their language, Greek. Later books were added to the Septuagint by anonymous translators. This is known as the Septuagint (translated by 70 or 72 Jewish scholars). The Septuagint was used by Greek speaking Jews and was naturally turned to by the Greek speaking believers in Jesus. Later Jewish scholars retranslated the Bible into Greek, as the Septuagint was seen as having issues in translations of words, these translations were done by Symmachus, Aquilas, and Theodotios, all converts to Judaism. Around the same time of this process, the Rabbinical School at Jamnia (Yavneh) under Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, decided that what was canonical for Judaism was only those books which had already been accepted as Scripture and were found in the Hebrew language. This eliminated most of the Apocrypha which was found mostly in Greek and Latin (but the book of Ecclesiasticus - "Ben Sirach" - has now been found in Hebrew and considered canonical by the Dead Sea community of Jews) as well as elevating the ''Hebrew'' Scriptures over just the Scriptures of Israel no matter in which language. Eventually over time, not only did the Septuagint drop out of Jewish usage, but so did the other Greek translations.

They were replaced by various translations of the Bible into Aramaic, one of the best known of these was the translation by Onkelos, a convert to Judaism, although Jewish scholars still used the Hebrew translation of the Bible, the laity preferred the Aramaic translations because Hebrew became out of use expect for Jewish scholars.

===="Jamnia" and Protestantism====
Though the connection of Jamnia and Protestantism is little known, it is a real one and one that exerted much influence on the developing Protestant Church and its outlook. The Hebrew canon of Scripture with its emphasis on Hebrew language originals sanctioned at Jamnia, which would exclude the Jewish but Greek language books we now know as Intertestamental or Apocryphal, would be the basis of a continuing textual study and ammendation according to the passing on of readings and comments by succeeding Jewish authorities, scholars, and rabbis. This work would be carried on through the fifth century, the time of the Masoretes - the "tradition (of Scripture) bearers". The receiving and handing on of how Scripture texts were to be read and sung, and what they meant.

When the [[Renaissance]] took hold in Europe, great interest was shown in the rediscovering both of the Greek classics, entailing the renewed study of Greek for this purpose, and the study of Hebrew language. Here now was the possibility for many scholars, and the emerging Protestant ones among them, to study the Hebrew Scriptures directly in the original language instead of the necessity of working through the Greek ([[Septuagint]]) and Latin ([[Vulgate]]) translations. But the Hebrew source resorted to by these scholars was the [[Masoretic]] text - following the School of Jamnia - without the Apocrypha. From then on, the heritage and perspective of the Protestant Reformation churches was that the Bible excluded the Apocrypha, though some of the churches would use the Apocrypha as "secondary" readings.

===The Talmud===
In Israel, there arose a literature, mainly in the common Hebrew of the day. It is known as the Mishna ("secondary"). This was primarily the recordings of discussions of Biblical laws with view to application to the present life and experience of Jews in Israel and in the [[diaspora]]. Changing conditions required more current applications. The Mishna developed over four centuries (200 B.C. to 200 A.D.) and is divided into 6 orders, numerous tractates, and smaller units (mishnayot). Most of the Mishna is comprised of "''Halakha''"- that is, legal discussions, decisions, having, in many cases, enforceable applications either by the Jewish community directly or by the Roman or otherwise authorities. The non legal aspects of the Mishna - the anecdotes, stories, remembrances of the rabbinic lives, etc. are called ''[[Aggadah]]'' ("the telling").

The Palestinian Hebrew Mishna, having spread to Mesopotamia, came to be regulatory to the Babylonian Jews, and, as the Mishna had become a "commentary" on the Hebrew Bible, so the Babylonian Jews developed a commentary on the Mishna itself. This was called the Gemara ("completion") and is in their own language, [[Aramaic]]. The formation of the Gemara took from 200 A.D. to 500 A.D. The whole Talmud then was a work of 700 years. The Mishna and the Gemara together is called the Talmud ("the Learning"). The Talmud then became regulatory until modern times for Jewish life elsewhere with but a few non-mainstream groups not accepting it.

The process of G-d sanctioned and ordained commentary (the Talmud) on the Scriptures is a legacy of the one movement that survived the first century Roman destruction of the temple and Jewish authority in Israel. The [[Saduccees]] disappeared as did the [[Essenes]] and the Herodians. But not so the [[Pharisees]]. The Pharisees believed that with the written Torah given to Moses on Sinai, there was also an Oral Torah given to him, by which the written was to be interpreted and applied. According to this tradition this Oral Torah was transmitted to others - Joshua, then the seventy, the prophets, and then to certain pairs (Zugot) finally finding its expression through the discussions and decisions embodied in the Talmudic literature. Through this the Jews created over 600 laws that they had to obey. Having a "portable" law and, so to speak, a "constitution" in the Talmud, Jews then were able to survive as Jews when they no longer had a land to live in and define them.

==Dietary laws==
Observant Jews follow a strict and complex set of rules governing what they may eat and drink. Permissible foods are called ''[[kosher]].'' Per Biblical commandments, only animals that chew their cud and have cloven hooves may be eaten and they must be properly slaughtered. Additionally, all birds other than "birds of prey" are kosher, so long as they are properly slaughtered. Anything which comes from the sea must have fins and scales. According to most traditions, dairy products cannot be mixed with meat from animals or birds. Vegetables must be checked for insects, as insects are considered "treyf," meaning not kosher. Additional rules apply during [[Pesach]].

==Life cycle==
Jewish boys are circumcised eight days after birth, in a ceremony called a bris where the circumcision is performed by a specially trained rabbi, termed a moyl. They become adults for religious purposes when they turn 13, an event marked by a ceremony called a [[Bar Mitzvah]]. Similar ceremonies for girls when they turn 12, called [[Bat Mitzvah]], were introduced in in the 20th century.

[[Jewish law]] only recognizes marriages between Jews. [[Divorce]] is permitted, but there are exacting rules that must be followed for the divorce to be valid, including the husband presenting a bill of divorce (''Get'') to his wife.

Jewish law requires bodies to be buried promptly, preferably no later than the day after death. [[Cremation]] is not permitted. There are prescribed stages of [[mourning]] for the first year after the death of a close relative (parent, sibling, spouse of child). The anniversary of such a death is observed with gifts to [[charity]] and the recitation of a prayer, ''[[Kaddish]],'' praising God's name.

==Jewish Identity==
Definitions of Jewish identity have changed over the years, and among the various Jewish religious and cultural groupings. Whereas, the Old Testament, stresses the importance of the male side of the family for the most important aspects of cultural decision and prerogatives, thus furthering identity through the Father (male) and his clan, present Orthodox Jewish identity is defined as coming through the mother. If the mother is Jewish, regardless of the father's religion, then the child is Jewish. Reformed Judaism disregards the Orthodox Jewish definition and stresses that Judaism is equally applicable as a religious designation whether through the mother or the father, in line with de-emphasizing the racial, cultural, and genetic background in favor of stressing the ethical content in Judaism. This is in line with Reform Judaism's stress on equality between the sects even in the house of worship. The Orthodox Jewish emphasis on the parentage through the mother as constituting Jewish identity, has brought about paradox and contradiction with Judaism's own sources. Whereas it is clear from Scripture that faith in the revealed will of God and His movement in History is what constituted the people, starting from Abraham, as a People, and then as a Nation and the formation, consequently, of identity, Orthodox Judaism recognizes as Jews those who are atheistic or agnostic, free thinkers, repudiators of all religous, and even those who have become members of other religions. These are considered still Jewish, howbeit, Jews who are not good Jews. The only exception possibly in the Jewish conception of acceptability under the definition of "Jewish" are Jews who have become Christians or members of [[Messianic Judaism]]. Yet, even these, though considered apostate, are considered Halakhically (according to Jewish orthodox religious law) as being Jewish. The modern state of Israel exhibits a contradiction in the question of Jewish identity. Orthodoxy is the accepted form of Judaism, and consequently, a non Jew having converted to Judaism under Reformed Jewish rite or Conservative Jewish rite are not considered Jewish for purposes of becoming citizens of Israel under Israel's Right of Return law. But neither are Messianic Jews eligible (Israeli Supreme Court decision) for citizenship under the Law of Return, even if they be born to a Jewish mother. This is in violation of halakhic definition but is in accord with common Israeli sentiment. What is rapidly being destroyed in the modern state of Israel and which does hearken back to the predominant Biblical definition is the purely racial and cultural catagorizing as to who might be considered a Jew. This is because of the immensity and varliagation in the origins of new immigrants to Israel - Ethiopia (Falasha origin), Iraq (6th cent. exile from Jerusalem), Turkey and Greece (1492 expulsion from Spain origin), Argentinia, China, India (both the long known B'nei Israel and the recently emerged B'nei Menasha of the Northern Kingdom dispersion), the former Soviet Union, the United States, Yemen (Himyaritic Kingdom conversion origin), etc.

==Jewish Humor==
Jewish humor is first of all not jokes about Jews made by non-Jews, nor is it jokes about Jews made to ridicule, making parody of characteristics considered Jewish traits. Jewish humor is humor made by Jews sometimes using material from the Jewish life and experience to highlight Jewish fallibilities to show them either as means of overcoming or defense, or to show them as universals shared by all peoples. Jewish humor is appreciated by both Jews and non Jews, thereby showing the truth of the commonality of Jews with all peoples. Because Jewish humor often is gently self-deprecating or willing to expose the foibles of Jews themselves, which Jews understand intuitively, Jewish comedians succeed, without raising rancor, in finding the humorous situation of other nationalities, without raising rancor. An example is the Sid Caesar's "German General" (below)

ex. 1. A man comes into the office of the Rabbi, while his wife waits her turn outside. Sitting next to the Rabbi is the Rebbitzen, his wife. The man comes in seats himself, and begins his tirade against his wife. She doesn't cook well, always complains, talks too loud, hours on the phone with the girls, on and on.
The rabbi listens carefully, and finally, slams his palm on the desk and says "You're right!" The man goes out and in comes the wife, seats herself, and then begins on her husband, never at home, when he comes, takes off his shoes and his shirt and leaves them on the floor, burps in public, on and on. The Rabbi listens, gets illuminated, slams his palm on the table and says, "You're right!" The wife leaves, and the Rebbitzen explodes and turning to him says, "How can they both be right, what kind of a counsel is that to say, Are you crazy?" The Rabbi, squints at her, slams his palm on the table and says, "You're right!"

ex. 2. Moses Mendelssohn was the father of reform Judaism and a favorite at the court of Fredrick the Second. Fredrick would often make fun of the helpless Moses before the nobles of the Court. This day, Fredrick wrote a note which said "Moses Mendelssohn is the First Ass of the Kingdom", and passed it around for all to see and snicker at. When it got to Moses, he read it, went into ecstasy with delight, holding it to his breast, finally saying to Fredrick, "O my lord, I have been so touched and honored by your note mentioning my name and I humbly ask of you that you sign it for my continual reverence." Fredrick nodded, signed it handing it back to Moses, who immediately rose from his knees, held out the note, and read it in loud and emotion packed tone, "Moses Mendelssohn is the First Ass of the Kingdom, Fredrick the Second."

ex. 3. The visual comedy of Jewish American comedian Sid Caesar [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybqVRYCXFPM] , [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0SG4YhiuYU]

==See also==
* [[What is Torah, what is Talmud]]
* [[Jewish communities in America]]
* [[Bible]]
* [[Israel]]
* [[Israel Tourism]]
* [[Synagogue]]
* [[Orthodox Judaism]]
* [[Passover Seder]]
* [[Singing the Hebrew Scriptures]]
* [[Hebrew]]
* [[Aramaic]]
* [[Aramaic Judaism, Jewish Aramaic Christianity, and John 1:1]]
* [[Aramaic Church]]
* [[Adiabene]]
* [[Had Gadya]]
* [[Kaddish]]
* [[Midrash]]
* [[Targum]]
* [[Christians and the Law of Moses: an essay]]
* [[The Sign of the Cross: of Jewish Origin]]
* [[Essay: The earliest Christian Church, a prison in Armageddon]]
* [[Jewish Biblical way of interpretation: a solution for New Testament understanding]]
* [[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]
* [[Inspiration of Holy Scripture: An Eastern Christian and Jewish Perspective]]
* [[Messianic Judaism]]
* [[Messiah]]
* [[Jewish persecution]]
* [[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]
* [[Picture Gallery: Israeli children victims of terrorism]]
* [[Jewish holidays]]
* [[Jewish philosophy]]
* [[Gallery of Jewish Painting]]

==External links==
* [http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Turkey's Islamic scholar, Rabbi Meir Lau, and Cain speechless before Abel]
* [http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russia and the U.S.]
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jewishsbook.html Internet Jewish History Sourcebook]
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ Jewish Virtual Library]
* [http://www.jewfaq.org/index.htm Judaism 101] Tracey R Rich.
* [http://www.jewishstudies.virtualave.net/ Academic Jewish Studies Internet Directory]
* [http://www.AskMoses.com AskMoses.com for questions about Judaism]
* [http://www.Chabad.org Chabad's Website]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/jews/ What Liberals Say - Category: Jews], [[Accuracy In Media]]
* [http://www.aish.com Aish.com/]
* [http://www.beingjewish.com/ BeingJewish.com]
* [http://jewishanswers.com/ JewishAnswers.com]
* [http://torah.org/ Torah.org]
* [http://simpletoremember.com SimpleToRemember.com]
* [http://njop.org National Jewish Outreach Program (outreaches to assimilated Jews)]
* [http://ArtScroll.com ArtScroll.com]
* [http://Shamash.org Shamash.org]
* [http://shemayisrael.com/ ShemaYisrael.com]
* [http://jewishworldreview.com/ JewishWorldReview.com]
* [http://heebmagazine.com/ Heeb magazine.] The New Jew Review.
* [http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/under-pillar-of-cloud.html Under the "Pillar of a Cloud"]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Music from Heaven, to the Bible, to the Mike, and back to heaven]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Judaism|*]]
[[Category:Anti-Semitism]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Bible]]
[[Category:Old Testament]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Islam

2013-04-14T20:13:53Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[File:Madina Haram at evening .jpg|center|800px|thumb|Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Mosque of the Prophet) in [[Medina]], [[Saudi Arabia]], the site of [[Muhammad|Muhammad's]] tomb.]]

'''Islam''' is a [[monotheism|monotheistic]] [[Abrahamic religion]] based on the teachings of [[Muhammad]] (or often [[Mohammed]] and other variants), a seventh century [[Arab]] who, according to Muslim belief, was an agent of divine action. Muhammad also claimed birth to the descendents of Abraham. Muhammed claimed to have received revelations from Allah via the archangel Gabriel, which were written in the [[Qur'an]] ([[Koran]]) - thus forming the core teachings of Islam.

==Overview==
The word "Islam" means "submission" (to [[Allah]]) in [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. Islam as originally designed in the Qur'an presents itself as an Abrahamic faith and has [[Moses]] in it<ref>Brannon Wheeler. Moses in the Qur'an and Islamic Exegesis. Routledge, 2002.</ref> as well as [[Jesus]] as a prophet in Islam,<ref>Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim, Ahmad Thomson. Jesus: Prophet of Islam. TTQ, INC., 2003.</ref> but not as God's son. Islam has been criticized for some time, due to its demanding of strict submissiveness especially of women, and its predisposition to being violent suspicious of other faiths and attacking other faiths deemed a threat to Islam, as a result there have been over 20,000 terrorist attacks committed by extremist Muslims since 2001.<ref>http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/</ref> A more recent strain of Islam has combined European totalitarianism and a virulent anti-Semiticism. This version is called [[Jihadism]], [[Islamism]], radical Islam or militant Islam. Without the historic institution of the Caliph, this form degenerates into terrorist stateless activity that strikes at the heart of civilized man. Moderate Muslims have denounced the Jihadist terrorists and believe that mainstream Islam has become corrupted over the years that there needs to be an [[Islamic Reformation]] similar to that of the [[Protestant Reformation]].<ref>Michaelle Browers, Charles Kurzman. An Islamic Reformation? Lexington Books, 2004.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.danielpipes.org/954/distinguishing-between-islam-and-islamism|title=Distinguishing between Islam and Islamism|author=Daniel Pipes|date=June 30, 1998}}</ref>

There are small groups of largely Westernized Muslims who publicly reject Islamism. Such moderate Muslim conservatives are in the [[Republican Party]], known as the [[Muslim Republicans]].<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref> One of America's Founding Fathers, [[Thomas Jefferson]], who was a religious [[libertarian]], declared: "''freedom for the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindu and infidel of every denomination''."<ref>John A. Garraty, Story of America Beginnings to 1877, (1992) Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pg 706.</ref>

Issues of Islam have arisen in the 2012 US Presidential campaign. Republican Presidential candidate [[Mitt Romney]] has said that: "''Radical, violent Islamists pose a threat to Americans and others around the world.''" and that "''they take a very different view of Islam than the Muslims I know.''" Romney has said that when he lived in Detroit he knew Muslims, as Detroit has a large Muslim population, and says "''They are peace-loving and America-loving individuals. I believe that very sincerely. I believe people of the Islamic faith do not have to subscribe to the idea of radical, violent jihadism.''<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref> Former Republican presidential nominee candidate [[Ron Paul]], a libertarian conservative, says that America should not fear Islam and said that America should just embrace people of all faiths.<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref> American conservative author Margaret Hoover believes that the Republican Party needs to recognize Muslim Republicans, noting an example of Muslim Republican youth Suhail Khan who she describes as "''one of thousands of Muslim Americans who work to promote Christian-Muslim understanding''".<ref>Margaret Hoover, ''American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party'', Random House Digital, Inc., 2011, pg 202.</ref> Candidates for the Republican nomination like [[Newt Gingrich]] and [[Rick Santorum]] strongly criticized Islamic extremism.<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref>

[[Multiculturalism|Multiculturalists]] ignore or minimize violence in the history of Islam and exaggerate Christian atrocities to advance a [[moral equivalence]]. Proponents of this view often cite the [[Crusades|Great Crusades]]--an unsuccessful attempt by Western Christians to retake parts of the [[Byzantine Empire]] that had been conquered by Islamic armies--and various religious wars which were later fought in Europe between branches of Christianity. However, they brand critics of Islamism “racists” and “[[Islamophobia|Islamophobes]]” for exposing today’s threats by [[jihadism|jihadists]].<ref>http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/charity.html</ref>

A follower of Islam is called a "[[Muslim]]" or "Moslem", a term which means "one who submits (to Allah)". The older terms "Mohammedan" and "Muhammedan" ("follower of Muhammad"), have fallen out of use.<ref> Additional archaic terms for Muslims include "Hagarene", and "Saracen". Saracen as a term for Muslims was limited to the Crusade era, although it makes frequent re-appearances in pre-modern polemics. Hagarene was a more common term in pre-modern works, as it denotes the biblical connection of Hagar the mother of Ishmael who is reported as the patriarch of Islam. Additional names for Muslims in pre-modern and Medieval works are generally derived from misspellings.</ref>

==Theology==
There are no clergy, but there are religious teachers, or [[Imam]]s, who have their followings. All Muslims are supposed to follow the teachings of Muhammad, whom they believe to be Allah's ('''الله''' in [[Arabic]]) last and greatest [[prophet]]. The teachings of Muhammad are transmitted through the [[Qur'an]], the Hadith, and the Sunnah. The Sunnah is a general term for "the life and doings of the Prophet", which all Muslims are called on to replicate. The faith teaches that the Archangel [[Gabriel]] appeared to Muhammad in a cave reciting verbatim a revelation from Allah. The first word that Gabriel says to Muhammad is "Iqra" or "Recite/Proclaim",which is found in the 96th Sura of the Qur'an.

Muslims believe that God revealed the Qur'an (or Koran) to Muhammad. The key miracle of Islam comes from the historical condition of the illiterate and uneducated Muhammad, as the Qur'an is composed in an erudite and complex form of Arabic prose and poetry<ref>Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created- Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,- He Who taught (the use of) the pen,- Taught man that which he knew not.(Surah 96:1-5)</ref>. The Qur'an was not written down in a systematic fashion until a decade after Muhammad died, preferable transmission being through oral recitation. The Qur'an is considered by muslims to be the pure and holy word of God, uncreated and eternal. In Islamic theology the term uncreated is very important, as it implies that there is no author for the Qur'an, only the delivering of the word to Muhammad who delivered it to the Sahab and the Salaf (The Companions and the Pure), who delivered it to the scribe delegated to record it in the reign of the Caliph Uthman bin Affan.

==Origins==
Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam originated in the Middle East. Islam claims to trace its roots back to Abraham through his son Ishmael. Muslims do not believe that Muhammad was the founder of Islam, rather that he restored the original faith of Abraham and the prophets that followed as recorded in the lost books of the Tawrat and Injil.

Based upon this belief, the [[Bible]], both the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]]s, is believed to have become corrupted through the [[Bible translations|translations and misinterpretations]] accumulated over several millenia. The criticism of the [[Torah]] centers around the reconstruction of the existing Biblical text required after the "[[Babylon]]ian captivity". The criticism of the New Testament centers in the many disputed gnostic texts which contradict the orthodox biblical canon. Interestingly, Islamic jurisprudence accepts that the Injil was complete and whole up until the revelation of Muhammad. Therefore there is some inconsistency in the claims made against the New Testament. For more information, see [[The Bible versus the Qur'an]].
[[Image:Mecca.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Mecca]], one of the holy cities of Islam.]]

==Today==
Islam is the worlds second largest religion, with over 1.6 billion followers, the number of Muslims is rapidly growing, mainly due to conversions, high birth rates, and redefinitions of the term 'Muslim'. Conversions to Christianity (from ''any'' faith or lack thereof) outnumber those to Islam, but cannot keep up with the birthrate discrepancy.<ref>[http://www.bible.ca/global-religion-statistics-world-christian-encyclopedia.htm World Christian Encyclopedia]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles6/AlJazeerahAfrica.php Translation of AL-Jazeerah interview between Maher Abdallah and Shiekh Ahmed Katani]</ref>

[[Indonesia]] has the largest Muslim population in the world.

==Historical Background==

According to Islamic belief, in approximately 610 A.D., [[Muhammad]], a 40-year-old merchant of the Quraysh tribe in [[Mecca]], located in the Hijaz (now eastern [[Saudi Arabia]]), was commanded by the angel [[Gabriel]] (or Jibreel) to "recite" the message of Allah (The Muslim god). Gabriel said mankind had lost sight of Allah's previous messages to earlier prophets, [[Adam]], [[Noah]], [[Abraham]], [[Moses]], [[Solomon]], and [[Jesus]], among others, and that Muhammad was to spread Allah's message to all people so that mankind would know how to live, how to show respect for Allah, and how to prepare for the judgment day.

The message to Muhammad was to be God's last and fullest revelation, a direct copy of the Umm Al Khitab, the mother of all books located in heaven next to God; Muhammad was the "seal of the prophets." Muhammad won some converts to Islam in his local area, but his [[monotheist]] preaching threatened to undermine the profitable [[polytheist]] pilgrim traffic supporting many Meccan merchants. In 622 A.D., the merchants drove Muhammad and his followers out of Mecca to the city of Yathrib (later renamed [[Medina]], or the city - as in the city of the prophet). This flight (hijra) from Mecca to Medina marks the beginning of the Muslim lunar calendar, and is celebrated each year in the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Muhammad's forces, composed of the sahaba (companions) from Mecca ,and the Ansar (allied tribes from Yathrib) started attacking the trade caravans going in and out of Mecca, cutting off its economic lifeline. After a series of battles between the Meccans and Muhammad's forces, Mecca finally accepted Muhammad's ultimatum to succumb and convert to Islam. The city welcomed the prophet back in 630. Muhammad died in 632.
[[File:Islam750.jpg|thumb|590px]]

Tribal elders in a traditional council called the "Shura" elected [[Abu Bakr]] to be Muhammad's successor, or [[Caliph]] (Khalifa). Abu Bakr united the tribes of the Arabian peninsula during his two years as head of the new faith. Upon his death, the elders elected [[Umar ibn al-Khattab]] the next Caliph. During Umar's ten year reign, Islam invaded and spread through conquest and negotiation into [[Egypt]], [[Syria]], [[Palestine]], [[Iraq]], and parts of [[Iran]]. Umar was assassinated by a Persian (modern day Iran) in 644, and was succeeded by [[Uthman ibn Affan]], who continued the invasions to spread Islam into [[North Africa]], [[Cyprus]], the rest of Iran, [[Afghanistan]], and parts of [[India]] and [[Pakistan]]. Over the next two centuries, Islamic armies continued to expanded Islam's empire into sub-Saharan Africa, [[Spain]], South-east and Central Asia, and [[Turkey]].

The Muslim armies conquered and superseded the ancient Sassanid and Byzantine empires which had ruled before. Within a generation of Muhammad's death Muslim armies occupied an empire stretching from the Nile river to the far off Iranian province of khorasan. Reasons for the rapid conquest are varied and obscure. The Arab armies were more akin to tribal war bands raiding and settling where and when they could. The Byzantine and Sassanid empires had been at war for centuries. The constant simmering conflict between Constantinople and Persia reached a climax in the early 7th century. The Sassanids conquered briefly Egypt and the Levant threatening the central Byzantine heartland of Anatolia. Under the military reforms of the emperor Heraclius, the Byzantine army consolidated and counter attacked, recapturing all that they had lost and capturing the Sassanian capital of Ctesiphon in 628.

This brief end of the Roman-Persian wars disrupted the frontier areas which had predicated their economies on raiding and mercenary activities. Two major areas in Arabia were directly affected. The Lackmid tribe and the Gassanid tribe both acted as mercenaries for the Persians and Romans. The official religion of both tribes analogically mirrored that of their overseers. Monophysite Christianity was common, particularly of the Jacobite sect. The death of Muhammad and the subsequent Ridda wars occupied these warrior tribes until the reign of Caliph Umar. Additionally, there was great religious unrest in the levant and Egypt. These areas resented the ruinous taxes and the harsh orthodoxy imposed by the emperor in Constantinople.

The same climate was present in the Sassanid realm with the rise of the dualism of the Manicheans. Under the Caliph Umar ,the Arab tribes which had concluded the infighting following the death of Muhammad were allowed to raid into the Byzantine and Sassanid fronteirs. The weakened state of both regimes from both military and economic exhaustion and religious unrest made them fertile picking grounds for the tribal warbands. The Arabs were chiefly successful in holding these areas in that they upheld a lightweight regime of low taxes based in the Islamic laws and distant government. Rather than employing an army of bureaucrats and nobility, the early Arab empire was more favorable towards maintaining the existing government structures under the leadership of Arab tribes. In this atmosphere it is hardly surprising to note the reports from both Muslim and Christian sources of peaceful capitulation and invitation of the invading forces.

==Divisions Within Islam==
Uthman was assassinated in 656 A.D. by soldiers who then installed Ali ibn Abu Talib, Muhammad's son-in-law, as [[Caliph]]. Ali's followers believed Muhammad had chosen Ali to be Muhammad's heir, and had disagreed with the selections of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman as Caliphs. Ali's claim to the position was challenged by Muawiyah, a kinsman of the murdered Uthman. Five years later, Ali was assassinated by Kharjites, religious dissidents who broke away from the main body of Muslims because they rejected Ali's accepting arbitration to resolve his leadership dispute with Muawiyah. Ali's supporters, or the Shiah al-Ali (or Shiat Ali, partisans of Ali) believed that Ali was the true Caliph and was, in part, divinely inspired. Ali's sons, Hassan and Husayn followed as [[Shia]] Caliphs, Hassan dying in 669 or 670 A.D., possibly by poisoning, and Husayn slain by soldiers of his rival, the [[Sunni]] Caliph Yazid, in 680 A.D.

The Shia Muslim community has divided further as followers coalesced around several of Ali's descendants or successors, called [[Imam]]s. The "twelvers," predominant in Iran, believe the twelfth Imam is in hiding and will reveal himself just before judgement day. Ismailis rejected the seventh Imam and practice a spirituality that seeks hidden meaning in scripture. Ismailis ruled much of [[North Africa]] as the [[Fatimid Dynasty]] of [[Egypt]] in the tenth through the twelfth centuries, and today are found primarily in [[Pakistan]], [[Afghanistan]], and [[India]]. The Sunni majority reject the premise that men can be divine, including Muhammad, Ali, or Jesus, and did not accept any of the Imams who followed Ali. Sunnis remain more committed to traditions and less inclined to accept Shia mysticism. Today, about 15% of the world's Muslims are Shia and 85% are orthodox Sunni.

There are other factions within Islam. Sufis, a name possibly derived from the wool garments they wear, developed around mystical practices and trance-induced revelations. Sufis are found today in [[Turkey]], [[Syria]], and parts of [[Africa]]. Other movements have taken reform tracks, such as the Unitarians of [[Saudi Arabia]], also called [[Wahhabi]]s after their 18th century reformist founder Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The conservative Wahhabis are found today in Saudi Arabia and [[Qatar]]. Today the Wahhabi line has a tendency to produce extremists, such as [[Osama Bin Laden]]. Some critics would argue that the [[Taliban]] of Afghanistan took conservative reform to an extreme. Other sects or break-away groups include, among others, the Alawis found in Syria and Turkey, the [[Druze]] in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel, the Ibadhis (Kharjites) in Oman and Africa, the Ahmadiya of Pakistan, and the Zaydis of Yemen.

==Religious Guidance==
During his lifetime, Muhammad's companions learned and later transcribed the verses (surrahs) of the Qur'an as Muhammad spoke them. In Islam, the teachings of Mohammed were believed to be direct divine revelation from God.

The third Caliph, Uthman, collected and codified the various versions of the surrahs into one written Qur'an that became the standard Arabic text used by the world's Muslims today. The Qur'an is longer than the Bible and written in general order of longest chapters to shortest rather than in any order of when they were spoken, sometimes making the work appear to be confusing. In all there are 114 chapters. Most of the later recorded sayings of Mohammed, which were also more warlike, actually appear earlier in the text. Present-day Muslims look first to the Qur'an as a guide to life, then to the [[Sunnah]], or the way of the Prophet (his life as an example for others) as recorded by his early companions, and then to the [[Hadith]], a collection of the Prophet's sayings, comments, advice, and descriptions.

Frequently, Muslims disagreed over how to interpret certain passages in the Qur'an, the Sunnah, or the Hadith in their search for the ideal life and perfect path to heaven. From these interpretations Sunni Muslims developed four schools of law, or interpretations of law, named after their founders or early leaders: the Hanbali, considered the most strict school and predominant today in Saudi Arabia; Shafi, the school of widest acceptance, found in Egypt, parts of Palestine-Syria, south Arabia, and the Far East; Maliki, prevalent in North Africa, Sudan, and Nigeria; and Hanafi, considered the most moderate school, predominant in Ottoman Turkey and today found primarily on the Levant and Indian subcontinent. Frequently, Muslim countries have two separate legal systems, one for civil, criminal, or commercial law, and a second, and separate, system for religious law. Religious courts and their judges (qadis) might handle issues dealing with marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, religious education, charitable or religious property (Waqf), or family matters. Among Middle Eastern countries, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen have Shariah courts serving alongside their secular courts or have adopted [[Sharia]]h (Islamic law) as the basis of their legal systems.

====Clergy====
Sunni Islam does not have a priesthood or clerical hierarchy to conduct religious services or interpret scripture, but it does have prayer leaders, called Imams, and religious scholars, called Ulama, who often are educated men familiar with the Qur'an and able to offer commentaries on Qur'anic verses. Sunni Muslims also respect the teachings and interpretations of scholars, judges, and academics who may interpret laws, write treatises on Sharia (religious law) or Hadith, and issue Fatwas, religious declarations intended to enlighten or guide Muslims.

Shia Islam has a hierarchy that resembles a priesthood. Mullahs are prayer leaders, but usually do not interpret religious law. Mujtahids are religious scholars who may interpret law or passages from the Qur'an or Hadith. The lower order of Mujtahids are called Hojjatolislam. Ayat Allah (literally sign of God, also Ayatollah) is a higher order of Mujtahid who may issue Fatwas, or religious edicts, in addition to leading Islamic schools, interpreting religious law and the Qur'an, and offering sermons or discourses on proper Islamic behavior.

===Five Pillars of Islam===
*'''Shahadah (Profession of Faith)''' -The Shahadah is the Muslim profession of faith. 'ašhadu 'al-lā ilāha illā-llāhu wa 'ašhadu 'anna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh, a loose English translation reads "''There is none worthy of worship except God, and [[Muhammad]] is the messenger of God''" This testament can be seen as the foundation of all of the other tenets of Islam.

*'''[[Salat]] (Ritual Prayer)''' -All Muslims are required to Pray to God five times each day while facing [[Mecca]].

*'''Zakat (Charity)''' Able Muslims must donate to the poor based on the wealth one has accumulated. In current usage it is interpreted as 2.5% of the value of most valuables and savings held for a full [[lunar year]].

*'''Sawm (Fasting)''' All able-bodied Muslims (children, pregnant women, the elderly, and the ill are exempt) must fast during daylight hours during the daylight hours of the entire month of [[Ramadan]]. According to Muslims, this purifies the body and soul. Some Muslim sects allow military, police and emergency services personnel to receive an exemption from fasting from an imam, on the grounds that their work supports the community or national good.

*'''Hajj (Pilgrimage)''' All able-bodied Muslims must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.

==Other Aspects of Islam==
[[Image:Quran.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Pages from the Qur'an, the holy book of the Islamic religion.]]
====Jihad====
Jihad is the "effort" or "struggle" each Muslim faces in the everyday trials of life, such as the effort to get better grades in school, or the striving to achieve better results from a job, or the struggle to avoid sinful temptations. Jihad also can be applied to warfare; participating in jihad in Allah's cause was the third most important good deed listed in the Hadith, after prayer and honoring one's parents. Jihad often was a rallying cry for the military spread of Islam in the seventh through tenth centuries against non-Muslims.

====Osama bin Laden and Fundamentalists====
[[Osama bin Laden]], a follower of a particular brand of Islam popular in Saudi Arabia, has stated that Islam is at war with the United States and its allies. Some observers maintain that the number of Islam fundamentalists is growing and poses a threat to the West.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.danielpipes.org/255/islamic-fundamentalists-are-the-new-big-threat-to-the-west|title=Islamic Fundamentalists are the New Big Threat to the West|author=Daniel Pipes|newspaper=Philadelphia Inquirer|date=Sept 16, 1994}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.city-journal.org/html/rev2006-06-04td.html|title=All or Nothing: The quest for a moderate Islam may be futile.|date=June 4 2006|author=Theodore Dalrymple|newspaper=Cite Journal}}</ref> But other observers differentiate between conservative "fundamentalists" and the "extremists" who follow murderers such as bin Laden or other terrorists.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://townhall.com/columnists/dineshdsouza/2008/09/15/who_speaks_for_islam/page/full/|title=Who Speaks For Islam|author=Dinesh D'Souza|newspaper=Townhall|date=Sept 15, 2009}}</ref> In several major Islamic nations, bin Laden had the support of the majority of people in the early years after the 9/11 attacks. As he lost battles with the West and started to target fellow Muslims his popularity waned.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/04/30/on-anniversary-of-bin-ladens-death-little-backing-of-al-qaeda/|title=On Anniversary of bin Laden’s Death, Little Backing of al Qaeda|date=April 30, 2012|publisher=Pew Research Center}}</ref>

====People of the Book====
Christians and Jews are called "people of the Book" in the Qur'an and are considered earlier forerunners to Islam and viewed as brothers as long as they pay an extra tax when under Islamic rule. Islam, tracing its roots back to Abraham through his son Ishmael instead of Isaac as the Jews did, believes that they are the descendants of God's promise. Islam believes that both the Old and New Testament were corrupted and corrected by the Qur'an, but there is still an earlier link between the three religions. The view of Jews and Christians varied within different parts of the Qur'an and Islamic history. Much of current Islamic culture, even in places that were once very tolerant such as Egypt, has seen an upsurge in persecution and violence against Christians and Jews.

====Women in Islam====
[[File:Muslim girls at Istiqlal Mosque Jakarta Indonesia.jpg|left|thumb|240px|Muslim girls at Istiqlal [[Mosque]], Jakarta.]]
In pre-Islamic times women's rights were defined by tribal laws which differed amongst the tribes. Some women had absolute equity and the ability to hold power, while some women were treated worse than chattel; bride prices, unlimited polygamy, and female infanticide were a common theme. [[Sharia law|Islamic law]] offered a path for which Muslim men could regulate women in a legal system based on Muslim principles of jurisprudence on the Arabian peninsula. Treated merely as individual sex objects, women were granted very limited rights but as distinct legal individuals; forced to marry who their parents tell them to, women are required not to directly object in order for the marriage contract to have some form of validity.

Unlike the pre-Islamic times where unlimited polygamy occurred, [[Sharia law]] limits [[polygamy]] to a maximum of four wives at any one time, though the use of "temporary" marriage in effect rendered this restriction meaningless. Once married, only men are entitled to divorce any time they please. The reality of traditional Sharia law as applied in the modern era has shocked the modern conscience.<ref>Linda Rae Bennett, ''Women, Islam and Modernity'' (2005)</ref> These restrictions on women were put into place over a thousand years ago, and there has been little progress since. Women are still not allowed to drive a [[car]], they cannot ride [[bicycle]]s, are unable to [[vote]], have been prohibited from traveling abroad without permission, and they can't use public facilities when men are present.

[[File:Sharia.jpg|right|thumb|220px|Muslim woman tortured under Sharia law.]]
Women in Islam are treated as inferiors to men in almost every regard. In [[Sharia]], the testimony of one man equals that of five women. Women are required to cover the head and body in public, by wearing the hijab. Hijab is applied in different ways: a small scarf around the head and western street clothes may be acceptable in Cairo or Damascus but a full length opaque [[Burqa]] was enforced in Taliban Afghanistan. As of 2008, [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Iran]], and [[Pakistan]] are the most significant Middle Eastern countries where the government requires women to wear some form of restrictive garb, though cultural pressure in most Islamic countries offers women little choice but to submit to the dictat of hijab. Women who disgrace their family are put to death in "[[honor killing]]s"; buried halfway or sometimes up to their neck so they cannot run, women, who are in most cases victims, are stoned to death.

=====Islamic dress is a regular grounds for conflict in multicultural education=====

Treatment of women varies widely by country. In the Islamic state of Saudi Arabia women are forbidden from driving a car, traveling in public without their husband or a male family member as an escort, leaving their home without wearing Islamic dress, working or voting. Though not formally forbidden from owning property, they have no way of obtaining this as work is forbidden and only males are permitted to inherit - should a man die, his brothers, sons and father will all inherit before his wife. These restrictions are part of Sharia law and enforced by the police and a special Islamic office. Pakistan has similar restrictions, but to a lesser extent. In contrast, [[Turkey]] has a majority Muslim population and yet grants women some rights similar to those of men including property ownership, employment, and education to university level.

Muslim apologists suggest the extremely repressive policies of countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are cultural rather than religious, though these are the countries were traditional Islam is strongest. They point to the more moderate Islam practiced in Turkey as a demonstration that Islam and womens' rights are compatible, ignoring the efforts of traditionalists in Turkey to end the few freedoms women were granted by men.

Muslim women's status is controversial. Whilst Muslim men control and oppress Muslim women by compelling them to remain hidden behind the veil, sequestered in the home, and ignorant of the world by denying them access to education and worldly opportunities, Islamic apologists defend some practices. These men claim that many of the restrictions on women, such as the veil, are cultural traditions that pre-date Islam and are intended to protect women from predatory men. Unfortunately, such Muslim men ignore the fact that if a predatory man or group of rapists were to sexually assault a Muslim woman in Islam, she would be punished under Sharia law for "allowing" such an act to occur, and she would likely receive hundreds of lashes and years of jail time; the predatory man or men commonly go unpunished.

====Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem====
Muhammad's home city of Mecca was the site of his earliest preaching and conversions, and is the location of the Kaaba, traditionally held to be the foundation stone of the first mosque built by Adam and later restored by Abraham, and now the focus of the annual pilgrimage (hajj). Some historians suggest that the Kaaba, a black stone probably meteoric in origin, was venerated by pre-Islamic polytheistic religions.

At first, Jerusalem was Islam's holy city and the focus of prayers, but Mecca became the center of Islam after Muhammad's return in 630. Medina, because of its early association with Muhammad and as the site of Muhammad's tomb, is second in importance to Mecca. Jerusalem is revered by Muslims as the site of Solomon's temple, Abraham's near sacrifice of his son Ishmael, and the scene of Muhammad's miraculous midnight journey, the latter two now enshrined in the [[Dome of the Rock]] mosque. According to the Qur'an (Surrah 17:1, Isra) and Hadith, Muhammad and Gabriel were taken on winged mules from Mecca to Jerusalem, where they ascended through the seven heavens to the presence of Allah. During the visit, Muhammad learned, among other points, that Muslims were to pray five times each day and to honor Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets.

====Restrictions====
Observant Muslims are not supposed to eat pork and in general do not have dogs as pets; both swine and canines are considered unclean. Muslims can have dogs for safety. Muslims are prohibited from drinking alcoholic beverages, gambling, and from collecting interest on financial transactions.

===Female Genital Mutilation and Honour Killings===
FGM (also known as female circumcision) is mentioned in Hadith as an "honorable" condition for a woman, and act to carry out. It is a pre-Islamic tradition in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, though not in Coptic Egypt as some Islamic apologists claim. Female circumcision is not called for nor is it supported by the Qur'an.

Another pagan practice practice continued in Islamic countries is [[honor killing]], in which a brother, father, or uncle "restores" or "defends" a family's honor by killing the sister, daughter, or niece that "dishonored" the family through supposedly, "promiscuous" behaviour. This "promiscuous" activity often includes women from Islamic societies living in the West aspiring to a more open lifestyle. The "honor killing" is more ancient, and pagan in origin, but tolerated and practised more or less openly in some Muslim societies. Honor killings are not supported by the Qur'an and are directly commanded against with the Surah "Who so ever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind, and who so ever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind."

==Islam and Christianity==
see [[Dhimma]]

While Muslims do not believe Jesus to be the Son of God or in the Resurrection, they consider Him and His mother to be of God's most important prophets (Marian and Isa) otherwise known as Mary and Jesus. However, the Qur'an warns against worshipping Jesus, Muhammad, and other humans for fear of [[idolatry]].<ref>[http://www.ccg.org/_domain/ccg.org/Islam/Islam.htm Christian Churches of God Articles on Islam], March 10, 2007</ref>

The Qur'an states that non-believers will be punished, though the nature of the punishment is not specified (same as similar statements in the Bible and the Torah):

{{cquote|Surely, disbelievers are those who said:
'Allah is the third of the three (in a Trinity).' But there is no god but One, Allah.
And if they cease not from what they say, verily, a painful torment will befall the disbelievers among them.

Will they not repent to Allah and ask His Forgiveness? For Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful.

The Messiah , son of Mary, was no more than a Messenger; many were the Messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a Siddiqah (i.e. she believed in the words of God and His Books ).
They both used to eat food (as any other human eat).
Look how We make the signs clear to them, yet look how they are deluded away (from the truth)."
}}
::(Qur'an 5:73-75)

However, Islam does recognize Christians and Jews as "people of the book" since both refer to one God only, and recognize Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) as a founding prophet.

==Sharia==
[[Image:StarCresent.png|thumb|right|220px|The Star and Crescent is a symbol of Islam. It is featured in the national flag of [[Algeria]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Malaysia]], [[Tunisia]], [[Mauritania]], [[Pakistan]], and [[Turkey]], amongst others]]
[[Sharia]] is the body of Islamic law. The term means "way" or "path"; it is the legal framework within which public and some private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Muslim principles of jurisprudence. It is not actually part of the canonical Qur'an; that is to say, it is not believed to be the direct word of God by Muslims, but rather the interpretation of it.

Sharia deals with many aspects of day-to-day life, including politics, economics, banking, business law, contract law, sexuality, marriage, divorce, and social issues. Most Islamic scholars regard Sharia as the body of precedent and legal theory established during the early stages of the Islamic Empire, though a few scholars also believe contemporary legal cases can and should shape the law, though such thinkers may be subject to ridicule and even threats from Islamists.

Sharia law proscribes often brutal punishments for acts, that, in the western world, are relatively minor. For example, under sharia law, converting from Islam is punishable by death,<ref>[http://www.ntpi.org/html/whyoppose.html]</ref> whilst women found guilty of adultery is punishable by stoning to death, which often includes many rape victims, as Sharia courts often regard a rape victim as guilty of adultery unless she can provide four witnesses to the act of rape.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6148590.stm</ref> In cases involving the death penalty of corporal punishment, methods of carrying out the punishment are often barbaric, and include public beheading, chopping off of the hand, and flogging.<ref>http://saudiwoman.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/punishment-in-saudi-arabia/</ref> Many Islamist groups have been attempting to have Shariah courts set up in European countries, initially to rule over civil cases between Muslims in Europe.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,422661,00.html</ref>

==Terminology==
Additional archaic terms for Muslims include, but are not limited to, "Hagarene" and "Saracen." The term Hagarene was more common in post-crusade Europe as it made specific reference to the biblical mother of Ishmael. Ishmael in the Muslim faith plays an analogous theological role to Isaac. Muslims do not use it today to avoid confusing worship of [[Muhammad]] with worship of [[Allah]]<ref>Schimmel, (1992)</ref>

==Ex-Muslims==
[[Michelle Malkin]] highlights a group of Ex-Muslims hoping to change the terms of debate about Islam in Europe. Maryam Namazie, the head of the British group said "Too many things in the media and government policies have been geared to pandering to the political Islamic movements and Islamic organizations." <ref> [http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/20/ex-muslims-stand-up-in-britain/ Ex-Muslims stand up in Britain]</ref> Ex-Muslims include Ibn Warraq, Wafa Sultan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Mark A. Gabriel, Walid Shoebat, and Mosab Hassan Yousef.

==Critics==
Most contemporary critics of Islam are either atheists or nominally religious: [[Ibn Warraq]] (author), [[Wafa Sultan]] (psychiatrist), [[Ayaan Hirsi Ali]] (author), [[Hugh Fitzgerald]] (of JihadWatch), [[David Horowitz]] (author), [[Oriana Fallaci]] (author), [[Geert Wilders]] (politician), [[Sam Harris]] (author), [[Pamela Geller]] (blogger), [[Bill Maher]] (comedian) and the crowd at they Ayn Rand Institute. The notable exception is [[Robert Spencer]], who while a devout Catholic, criticizes Islam as a political ideology. Political critics include [[Herman Cain]] and [[Rick Santorum]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.news-press.com/article/20130323/NEWS0119/303230016/Santorum-delivers-warning-about-radical-Islam-during-Naples-appearance|title=Santorum delivers warning about radical Islam during Naples appearance|date=March 23, 2013|newspaper=Fort Meyers News Press|author=Lindsay Downey}}</ref>. Neither [[Ronald Reagan]] (who help mujahideen fight atheistic communists) nor [[George W. Bush]] (“Islam means peace”) saw Islam as the problem. Commentators note that the conservative response to fundamental Islam is a far cry from the complete and unequivocal condemnation of Communism during the heyday of the Cold War.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liberty-and-culture.com/conservatives.html|title=The Conservative Response to the Islamic Threat.|author=Jason Pappas|date=Sept 5, 2004}}</ref> Dinesh D’Souza argues that Muslims are God-fearing conservatives.<ref>{{cite book|author=Dinesh D’Souza|title=The Enemy At Home|year=2007|publisher= Doubleday}}</ref>

<ref>''Some of the text for this article was taken from "Islam: A Primer", Congressional Research Service Report for Congress (2003), a work in the public domain'' [http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/islam.htm#back] </ref>

== See also ==
[[Image:Africa islam 87.jpg|thumb|Islam in Africa]]
*[[Arab American]]
*[[Islamic republic]]
*[[Islamophobia]]
*[[Qur'an]]
*[[Jihadism]], an extremist, take on Islam
*[[Ramadan]]
*[[In the midst of a Maelstrom: the Holy Spirit and silence: an essay]] encounter of Israeli Messianic Jew and Egyptian Muslim in Alexandria
*[[List of countries by number of Muslims]]

==Further reading==
* Armour, Rollin. ''Islam, Christianity, and the West: A Troubled History'' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Islam-Christianity-West-Troubled-History/dp/1570754071/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342713&sr=1-32 excerpt and text search]
* Armstrong, Karen. ''Islam: A Short History'' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Islam-History-Modern-Library-Chronicles/dp/081296618X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342302&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Berkey, Jonathan P. ''The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800'' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Formation-Islam-Religion-Society-600-1800/dp/0521588138/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342713&sr=1-27 excerpt and text search]
* Campo, Juan Eduardo. ''Encyclopedia of Islam'' (2009), basic introduction
* Esposito, John J. ''The Oxford History of Islam'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-History-Islam-John-Esposito/dp/0195107993/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342302&sr=1-6 excerpt and text search]
* Glasse, Cyril. ''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'' ( 2nd ed. 2008)
* Lewis, Bernard. ''Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East'' (2001), by leading conservative historian [http://www.amazon.com/Islam-History-People-Events-Middle/dp/0812695186/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342525&sr=1-15 excerpt and text search]
* Martin, Richard C. et al. ''Encyclopedia of Islam & the Muslim World'' (2003), more advanced
* Newby, Gordon. ''A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam'' (2002) [http://www.amazon.com/Concise-Encyclopedia-Islam-Gordon-Newby/dp/1851682953/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342942&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Robinson, Chase F. ed. ''The New Cambridge History of Islam'' (Volume 1) (2009), summarizes advanced scholarship
* Ruthven, Malise, and Azim Nanji. ''Historical Atlas of Islam'' (2004)
* Schimmel, Annemarie. ''Islam: An Introduction''. (1992)
* Sonn, Tamara and Mary Williamsburg. ''A Brief History of Islam'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Blackwell-Histories-Religion/dp/1405109009/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342302&sr=1-12 excerpt and text search]
* Wheatcroft, Andrew. ''Infidels: A History of the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam'' (2005) [http://www.amazon.com/Infidels-History-Conflict-Between-Christendom/dp/0812972392/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259342525&sr=1-13 excerpt and text search]

==External links==
*[http://muslim-canada.org/islam_christianity.html Islam and Christianity] - excellent article comparing and contrasting the two.
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/ Qur'an online in English]
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/ Sahih Bukhari (Hadith collection) online in English]
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/ Sahih Muslim (Hadith collection) online in English]
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/abudawud/ Sunan Abu-Dawud (Hadith collection) online in English]
*[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muwatta/ Malik's Muwatta (Hadith collection) online in English]
* Congressional Research Service, "Islam: A Primer", Report for Congress (2003), a work in the public domain and the source of part of this article [http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/islam.htm#back]
*[http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2011/01/islamists-torch-pope-in-effigy-again.html Islamists Torch Pope in Effigy, Again]
*[http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/2010/december/849_kind-strangers.html Muslims Saving Jews During World War II.] By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh.
*[http://differencesbetween.com/islam-and-muslim/ Difference Between Islam and Muslim]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ A Turkish Delight: they think so in Israel too!]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Muslims]]
[[Category:Islam]]

Turkiye

2013-04-14T20:11:21Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

For the animal with the same name see [[Turkey (bird)]]

{{Country
|name =''Türkiye Cumhuriyeti''
|map =Turkey rel 2006.jpg
|flag =Flag of Turkey.png
|arms =Arms of Turkey.png
|capital =Ankara
|capital-raw =
|government =Parliamentary republic
|government-raw =
|language =Turkish
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Abdullah Gül
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
|pm-raw =
|area =302,535 sq mi
|pop =78,785,000
|pop-basis =2011
|gdp =$508 billion
|gdp-year =2008
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The '''Republic of Turkey''' is a country occupying the Anatolian Peninsula of western [[Asia]], as well as a small section of eastern [[Europe]] at the Bosporus Strait.

==People==
[[File:Children in traditional dress Istanbul Turkey.jpg|thumb|left|Children in traditional dress, Istanbul.]]
Modern Turkey encompasses bustling cosmopolitan centers, pastoral farming villages, barren wastelands, peaceful Aegean coastlines, and steep mountain regions. More than half of Turkey's population lives in urban areas that juxtapose Western lifestyles with more traditional ways of life.

The Turkish state has been officially [[secular]] since 1924. Approximately 99% of the population is [[Muslim]]. Most Turkish Muslims follow the [[Sunni]] traditions of Islam, although a significant number follow Alevi and [[Shiite]] traditions. Questions regarding role of religion in society and government, the role of linguistic and ethnic identity, and the public's expectation to live in security dominate public discourse. Turkish citizens who assert a [[Kurds|Kurdish]] identity constitute an ethnic and linguistic group that is estimated at up to 12 million in number.
*Population (2006): 72.9 million.
*Annual population growth rate (2004 est.): 1.33%.
*Ethnic groups: Turkish, Kurdish, other.
*Religions: Muslim 99%, Christian, Bahai, and Jewish.
*Languages: Turkish (official), Kurdish, Zaza, Arabic, Armenian, Greek.
*Education: Years compulsory--8. Attendance--97.6%. Literacy--86.5%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate--39.4/1,000. Life expectancy--68.5 yrs.
*Work force (23 million): Agriculture--35.6%; industry--17.5%; services--47.2%.

[[File:Ankara panorama Turkey.jpg|thumb|center|700px|The capital Ankara.]]

==Government and Political Conditions==
[[File:Turkish Parliament in Ankara.jpg|thumb|300px|The Parliament in Ankara.]]
The 1982 Constitution, drafted by the military in the wake of a 1980 military coup, proclaims Turkey's system of government as democratic, secular, and parliamentary. The presidency's powers are not precisely defined in practice, and the president's influence depends on his personality and political weight. The president and the Council of Ministers led by the prime minister share executive powers. The president, who has broad powers of appointment and supervision, is chosen by Parliament for a term of 7 years and cannot be reelected. A constitutional amendment recommending the direct election by the people of the president to a 5-year term, with the possibility of serving a second 5-year term, may be submitted to a popular referendum in 2007. The prime minister administers the government. The prime minister and the Council of Ministers are responsible to Parliament.

The 550-member Parliament carries out legislative functions. Election is by proportional representation. To participate in the distribution of seats, a party must obtain at least 10% of the votes cast at the national level as well as a percentage of votes in the contested district according to a complex formula. The president enacts laws passed by Parliament within 15 days. With the exception of budgetary laws, the president may return a law to the Parliament for reconsideration. If Parliament reenacts the law, it is binding, although the president may then apply to the Constitutional Court for a reversal of the law. Constitutional amendments pass with a 60% vote, but require a popular referendum unless passed with a two-thirds majority; the president may also submit amendments passed with a two-thirds majority to a popular referendum.

The judiciary is declared to be independent, but the need for judicial reform and confirmation of its independence are subjects of open debate. Internationally recognized human rights, including freedom of thought, expression, assembly, and travel, are officially enshrined in the Constitution but have at times been narrowly interpreted, can be limited in times of emergency and cannot be used to violate what the Constitution and the courts consider the integrity of the state or to impose a system of government based on religion, ethnicity, or the domination of one social class. The Constitution prohibits torture or ill treatment; the current government has focused on ensuring that practice matches principle. Labor rights, including the right to strike, are recognized in the Constitution but can be restricted.

The 1982 Constitution provides for a system of State Security Courts to deal with offenses against the integrity of the state. The high court system includes a Constitutional Court responsible for judicial review of legislation, a Court of Cassation (or Supreme Court of Appeals), a Council of State serving as the high administrative and appeals court, a Court of Accounts, and a Military Court of Appeals. The High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, appointed by the president, supervises the judiciary.

In the November 2002 election of Turkey's 58th government, the Justice and Development Party (AK) captured 34.3% of the total votes, making Abdullah Gul Prime Minister, followed by the Republican People's Party (CHP) with 19.39% of the vote, led by Deniz Baykal. A special General Election was held again in the province of Siirt in March 2003, resulting in the election of AK's chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan to a seat in parliament, allowing him to become prime minister. AK and CHP were the only parties to surpass the 10% threshold required to hold seats in parliament. The elections resulted in 363 of the 550 seats going to AK, 178 seats to CHP, and 9 as independent. Due to a reshuffle in party affiliation, AK holds 367 seats, CHP holds 175 seats, five are independent, and three joined the True Path Party (DYP). In March 2004 nationwide local elections, AKP won 57 of 81 provincial capital municipalities and, with 41.8% of the votes for provincial council seats, consolidated its hold on power.
[[File:Turkish president Abdullah Gul.jpg|thumb|240px|Turkish president Abdullah Gul.]]
The Turkish Grand National Assembly was to have elected in May 2007 a new president to succeed President Sezer on June 16. Opposition parties led a challenge to the electoral procedures, which resulted in a series of proposed constitutional amendments and the call for early general elections on July 22. The new parliament, which was sworn in on July 28, includes 341 AKP members, 98 CHP members, 70 Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) members, 20 Democratic Society Party (DTP) members, 13 Democratic Left Party (DSP) members, and 7 independents. Following the election, Sezer reappointed Erdogan as PM and then-Foreign Minister Gul declared his presidential candidacy. The parliament elected Gul in the third round of voting on August 28. President Gul approved Erdogan's proposed cabinet on August 30, and the new government received a vote of confidence on September 5.

Human-right abuses, especially against [[Christians]] remains a problem
<ref>http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78844.htm</ref> and the frequency of violent attacks on Christian ministers and priests is still high
<ref>http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20070418-030533-9552</ref>
<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5139408.stm </ref>.
{{Clear}}
===Principal Government Officials===
*President of the Republic--Abdullah Gul
*Prime Minister--Recep Tayyip Erdogan
*Minister of Foreign Affairs--Ali Babacan
*Ambassador to the United States--Nabi Sensoy
*Ambassador to the United Nations--Umit Pamir

===Foreign Relations===
[[File:Turkish girls laughing in calimanesti.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Turkish dancers in a festival in [[Romania]].]]
Turkey's primary political, economic, and security ties are with the West, although some voices call for a more "Eurasian" orientation.

Turkey entered NATO in 1952 and serves as the organization's vital eastern anchor, controlling the straits leading from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and sharing a border with Syria, Iraq, and Iran. A NATO headquarters is located in Izmir. Besides its relationships with NATO and the EU, Turkey is a member of the OECD, the Council of Europe, and OSCE. Turkey also is a member of the UN and the Islamic Conference Organization (OIC). In December 1999, Turkey became a candidate for EU membership. On December 17, 2004, the EU decided to begin formal accession negotiations with Turkey in October 2005.

Turkey and the EU formed a customs union beginning January 1, 1996. The agreement covers industrial and processed agricultural goods. Turkey is harmonizing its laws and regulations with EU standards. Turkey adopted the EU's Common External Tariff regime, effectively lowering Turkey's tariffs for third countries, including the United States.

On October 3, 2005, Turkey and the EU reached agreement for Turkey to begin negotiations on accession to the European Union. Turkey and EU officials have begun the process of screening Turkey's laws and policies in order to begin negotiating the individual chapters required for ultimate EU accession. However, this admission request has not been without criticism <ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2420697.stm</ref>, including:
*Serious human rights violations<ref>http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070419-0809-italy-turkey-eu.html</ref>
*Refusal to admit genocide of [[Armenia]]<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6043730.stm</ref>
*Refusal to recognize [[Cyprus]]<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6153186.stm</ref>
*Only 3% of Turkey is in [[Europe]]
*Threat of increasing [[Islamic]] fundamentalism<ref>http://www.freemuslims.org/news/article.php?article=1761</ref>

Turkey opened and provisionally closed in 2006 one EU negotiating chapter on science and technology. Another chapter on statistics was opened in February 2007, and two more are expected to be opened by July 1, 2007. Eight chapters, mostly related to trade, were suspended by the European Council in December 2006 after Turkey declined to open its ports and airports to Cypriot vessels--a commitment Turkey made as part of the Ankara Protocol and its EU Customs Union membership.

Turkey is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It has signed free trade agreements with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Israel, and many other countries. In 1992 Turkey and 10 other regional nations formed the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Council to expand regional trade and economic cooperation. Turkey chaired BSEC in 2007 and hosted in Istanbul the 15th BSEC Summit in June 2007.

===Relations with the United States===
U.S.-Turkish friendship dates to the late 18th century and was officially sealed by a treaty in 1830. The present close relationship began with the agreement of July 12, 1947, which implemented the Truman Doctrine. As part of the cooperative effort to further Turkish economic and military self-reliance, the United States has loaned and granted Turkey more than $12.5 billion in economic aid and more than $14 billion in military assistance.

U.S.-Turkish relations focus on areas such as strategic energy cooperation, trade and investment, security ties, regional stability, the global war on terrorism, and human rights progress. Relations were strained when Turkey refused in March 2003 to allow U.S. troops to deploy through its territory to Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom, but regained momentum steadily thereafter and mutual interests remain strong across a wide spectrum of issues. On July 5, 2006, Secretary Rice and then-Foreign Minister Gul signed a Shared Vision Statement to highlight the common values and goals between our two countries and to lay out a framework for increased strategic dialogue.

The U.S. and Turkey have had a Joint Economic Commission and a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which last met in Washington in April 2007, for several years. In 2002, the two countries indicated their joint intent to upgrade bilateral economic relations by launching an Economic Partnership Commission, which last convened in Ankara in February 2007. In 2006, Turkish exports to the U.S. totaled about $5.4 billion, and U.S. exports to Turkey totaled $5.7 billion.

After the turkish leader [[Recep Tayyip Erdogan]] equated [[Zionism]] with [[Fascism]], [[John Kerry]] critized him.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/01/official-kerry-to-rap-turkey-pm-for-remark/</ref>

==Economy==
[[Image:Framed medallion Turkey.jpg|300px|thumb|Framed medallion.]]
Turkey is a large, middle-income country with relatively few natural resources. Its economy is currently in transition from a high degree of reliance on agriculture and heavy industrial economy to a more diversified economy with an increasingly large and globalized services sector. Coming out of a tradition of a state-directed economy that was relatively closed to the outside world, Prime Minister and then President Turgut Ozal began to open up the economy in the 1980s, leading to the signing of a Customs Union with the European Union in 1995. In the 1990s, Turkey's economy suffered from a series of coalition governments with weak economic policies, leading to high-inflation boom-and-bust cycles that culminated in a severe banking and economic crisis in 2001 and a deep economic downturn (GNP fell 9.5% in 2001) and increase in unemployment.

Turkey's economy has recovered strongly from the 2001 thanks to good monetary and fiscal policies and structural economic reforms made with the support of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The independence of the Central Bank has been firmly established, a floating exchange rate system has been put in place, and the government's overall budget deficit has been substantially reduced. In addition, there have been substantial reforms in the financial, energy, and telecommunications sectors that have included the privatization of several large state-owned institutions.

Turkey's economy grew an average of 7.5% per year from 2002 through 2006--one of the highest sustained rates of growth in the world. It is expected to grow about 6.1% in 2007. Inflation and interest rates have fallen significantly, the currency has stabilized, government debt has declined to more supportable levels, and business and consumer confidence have returned. At the same time, booming economic growth has contributed to a growing current account deficit. Though Turkey's vulnerabilities have been greatly reduced, the economy could still face problems in the event there is a sudden change in investor sentiment that leads to a sharp fall in the exchange rate. Continued implementation of reforms, including tight fiscal policy, is essential to sustain growth and stability.

After years of low levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), in 2006, Turkey succeeded in attracting $18.9 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) and is expected to attract a similar level in 2007. A series of large privatizations, the stability fostered by the start of Turkey's EU accession negotiations, strong and stable growth, and structural changes in the banking, retail, and telecommunications sectors have all contributed to the rise in foreign investment. Turkey has taken steps to improve its investment climate through administrative streamlining, an end to foreign investment screening, and strengthened intellectual property legislation. However, a number of disputes involving foreign investors in Turkey and certain policies, such as high taxation and continuing gaps in the intellectual property regime, inhibit investment. Turkey has a number of bilateral investment and tax treaties, including with the United States, which guarantee free repatriation of capital in convertible currencies and eliminate double taxation.
*GDP: (2004) $300.6 billion; (2005) $361.5 billion; (2006) $390.4 billion.
*Annual real GDP growth rate: (2004) (+) 8.9%; (2005) 7.4%; (2006) 6.0%.
*GDP per capita: (2004) $4,187; (2005) $5,016; (2006) $5,349.
*Annual inflation rate /CPI: (2003) 18.4%; (2004) 9.3%; (2005) 7.7%; (2006) 9.7%.
*Natural resources: Coal, chromium, mercury, copper, boron, oil, gold.
*Agriculture (10.8% of GNP): Major cash crops--cotton, sugar beets, hazelnuts, wheat, barley, and tobacco. Provides 26% of jobs and 4% of exports.
*Industry (25.4% of GNP): Major growth sector, types--automotive, electronics, food processing, textiles, basic metals, chemicals, and petrochemicals. Provides 20% of jobs.
*Trade: Exports (merchandise)--(2005) $73.1 billion; (2006) $83.5 billion: textiles and apparel, industrial machinery, iron and steel, electronics, petroleum products, and motor vehicles. Imports (merchandise)--(2005) $116 billion; (2006) 135.5 billion: petroleum, machinery, motor vehicles, electronics, iron and steel, plastics precious metals. Major partners--Germany, U.S., Italy, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, U.K.

====European Union accession====
Turkey's principal ongoing economic challenge is providing for the needs of a fast-growing, young population. Raising living standards to those prevalent in Europe will require high rates of GDP growth sustained over many years. This will entail continued structural reforms that encourage both domestic and foreign investment. Principal areas for reform identified by international financial intuitions include increasing flexibility in the labor market, making the educational sector more responsive to the needs of the economy and ensuring faster and more predictable operation of the judicial system. As an aspirant to membership in the European Union, Turkey aims to adopt the EU's basic system of national law and regulation (the acquis communautaire) by 2014. While implementing some elements of the acquis will be costly and difficult (for example in the areas of environmental protection and agriculture), its adoption will make a significant contribution to modernizing the economy.

====Energy====
[[File:Electric Energy Grid Turkey.jpg|thumb|360px|Electric Energy Grid.]]
Installed electricity generation capacity in Turkey reached 35,600 megawatts (MW) as of 2004. Fossil fuels account for 71% of the total installed capacity and hydro, geothermal, and wind account for the remaining 28%. The growth in electricity generation has remained below electricity demand until recently, which has made Turkey a net importer of electricity since 1997. The growth of energy demand slowed somewhat as a result of the 2001 economic crisis, but has picked up again. Turkish authorities expect a significant electricity shortfall unless new facilities become operational. The Government of Turkey took some important steps in 2001 to liberalize its energy sector, including passage of the Electricity Market Law and establishment of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA). However, the government has moved slowly to follow through on plans to liberalize and privatize the electricity and natural gas sectors. In 2004, the High Planning Council approved the Electricity Sector Reform Strategy to renew the reform process.

Oil provides about 43% of Turkey's total energy requirements; around 90% is imported. Domestic production is mostly from small fields in the southeast. New exploration is taking place in the eastern Black Sea. In 2004, the Parliament approved a petroleum market reform bill that liberalized consumer prices and would lead to the privatization of the state refining company TUPRAS. TUPRAS was privatized in 2005, but this has been held up by court cases still in process. Turkey has a refining capacity of 802,275 barrels per day (b/d).

Turkey acts as an important link in the East-West Southern Energy Corridor bringing Caspian, Central Asian, and Middle Eastern energy to Europe and world markets. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which came online in July 2006, delivers 1 million b/d of petroleum, and in 2007, the South Caucasus Pipeline (from Shah Deniz) is expected to bring natural gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey. Turkey is building an interconnector pipeline to Greece, an important step in bringing Caspian natural gas to Europe via Turkey.

====Telecommunications====
[[File:Turk map.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Turkey map.]]
Parliament enacted legislation separating telecommunications policy and regulatory functions in January 2000, by establishing an independent regulatory body, the Telecommunication Authority. The Authority is responsible for issuing licenses, supervising operators, and taking necessary technical measures against violations of the rules. Most regulatory functions of the Transport Ministry were transferred to the Authority, and the regulator is slowly gaining competence and independence. The long-expected privatization of the state-owned telecommunications company was accomplished by the sale of 55% of Turk Telekom to the Saudi-owned Oger Group in November 2005. With liberalization and growth in the economy, there is growing competition for Internet provision, but Turk Telekom remains the sole provider of ADSL wide band Internet.

====Environment====
[[File:TurkishForest.jpg|thumb|left|280px|Turkish forest.]]
With the establishment of the Environment Ministry in 1991, Turkey began to make significant progress addressing its most pressing environmental problems. The most dramatic improvements were significant reductions of air pollution in Istanbul and Ankara. However, progress has been slow on the remaining--and serious--environmental challenges facing Turkey.

In 2003, the Ministry of Environment was merged with the Forestry Ministry. With its goal to join the EU, Turkey has made commendable progress in updating and modernizing its environmental legislation. However, environmental concerns are not fully integrated into public decision-making and enforcement can be weak. Turkey faces a backlog of environmental problems, requiring enormous outlays for infrastructure. The most pressing needs are for water treatment plants, wastewater treatment facilities, solid waste management, and conservation of biodiversity. The discovery of a number of chemical waste sites in 2006 has highlighted weakness in environmental law and oversight.
{{Clear}}

====Transportation====
The Turkish Government gives a special priority to major infrastructure projects, especially in the transport sector. The government is in the process of building new airports and highways, thanks to an increased public investment budget. The government will realize many of these projects by utilizing the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.

==History==
[[Image:St. Sophie Turkey.jpg|right|280px|thumb|Hagia Sofia, Istanbul]]
[[Mustafa Kemal]], celebrated by the Turkish State as a Turkish [[World War I]] hero and later known as "Ataturk" or "father of the Turks," led the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 after the collapse of the 600-year-old [[Ottoman Empire]] and a three-year war of independence. The empire, which at its peak controlled vast stretches of northern Africa, southeastern Europe, and western Asia, had failed to keep pace with European social and technological developments. The rise of national consciousness impelled several national groups within the Empire to seek independence as nation-states, leading to the empire's fragmentation. This process culminated in the disastrous Ottoman participation in World War I as a German ally. Defeated, shorn of much of its former territory, and partly occupied by forces of the victorious European states, the Ottoman structure was repudiated by Turkish nationalists brought together under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal. The nationalists expelled invading Greek, Russian, French and Italian forces from Anatolia in a bitter war. After the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey the temporal and religious ruling institutions of the old empire (the sultanate and caliphate) were abolished.
[[File:Muslims in Europe map.jpg|thumb|320px|left|Muslims in Europe by country.]]
The leaders of the new republic concentrated on consolidating their power and modernizing and Westernizing what had been the empire's core--Asian Anatolia and a part of European Thrace. Social, political, linguistic, and economic reforms and attitudes decreed by Ataturk from 1924-1934 continue to be referred to as the ideological base of modern Turkey. In the post-Ataturk era, and especially after the military coup of 1960, this ideology came to be known as "Kemalism" and his reforms began to be referred to as "revolutions." Kemalism comprises a Turkish form of secularism, strong nationalism, statism, and to a degree a western orientation. The continued validity and applicability of Kemalism are the subject of lively debate in Turkey's political life. The current ruling AK Party comes from a tradition that challenges many of the Kemalist precepts and is driven in its reform efforts by a desire to achieve EU accession.

Turkey entered [[World War II]] on the Allied side until shortly before the war ended, becoming a charter member of the [[United Nations]]. Difficulties faced by [[Greece]] after World War II in quelling a communist rebellion and demands by the [[Soviet Union]] for military bases in the Turkish Straits prompted the United States to declare the [[Truman Doctrine]] in 1947. The doctrine enunciated American intentions to guarantee the security of Turkey and Greece and resulted in large scale U.S. military and economic aid under the [[Marshall Plan]]. After participating with United Nations forces in the [[Korean War|Korean conflict]], Turkey in 1952 joined the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO). Turkey is currently a [[European Union]] candidate, although this has been clouded by their refusal to acknowledge the [[Armenian genocide]].

== See also ==
[[File:Blue mosque Istanbul Turkey.jpg|thumb|The Blue Mosque, Istanbul.]]
*[[Kamal Ataturk]]
*[[Battle of Adrianople ]]
*[[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]]
*[[Parthia]]
*[[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]]
*[[Oriental art]]
{{Clear}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.nuktravel.com/turkey.html WELCOME TO TURKEY]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ A Turkish Delight: they think so in Israel also!]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3432.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Asian Countries}}

[[Category:European Countries]]
[[Category:NATO members]]
[[Category:Turkey]]
[[Category:Muslim-Majority Countries]]

Christianity

2013-03-16T19:51:22Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External Links */

{{Christianity}}
'''Christianity''' is the world's largest [[religion]], having 2.1 billion followers with a presence on all seven continents.<ref>http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html</ref> It is a [[monotheistic]] religion that professes belief in [[Jesus]] (in the Hebrew original, "Yeshua HaMashiach") as the Son of [[God]]. Followers of Jesus are called Christians, meaning "of Christ" or "belonging to Christ."<ref>[http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=2661&dict=CALD Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary]</ref> The early Christian faith was sometimes called ''That Way'', (Acts 19:1,9,23; 24:22), and its adherents were also called ''Nazarenes'' (Acts 24:5), evidently after the city of [[Nazareth]] where Jesus lived. The [[Acts of the Apostles|Book of Acts]] (Acts:11:26) records that "the disciples were called Christians first in [[Antioch]]." The title ''Christian'' is also used in Acts 26:28 and 1 Peter 4:16.

== Main Christian Divisions ==
[[Image:Anglican Christ Church.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Anglican Christ Church in Western Australia]]
'''The three largest self-governing bodies of Christians are:'''

* The [[Roman Catholic Church]] (approx. 1.1 billion baptized members) traces its roots back to [[Saint Peter]] whom Catholics believe established their church and the succession of [[Pope]]s as the spiritual leaders of Christendom.

* The [[Orthodox Church]]es (approx. 300 million baptized members) trace their roots back to the Apostles, and are organized in Autocephalous national or regional churches in communion with each other. Differing theological perspectives led to the [[Great Schism]] between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches in A.D. 1054.

* [[Protestantism]]: the largest Communions are the [[Anglican Church|Anglicans]] (approx. 115 million baptized members) and the [[Lutheran]] World Federation (approx. 68 million baptized members). Protestantism has its origins in the European [[Reformation]]. It broke from the Roman Catholic Church under [[Martin Luther]] when differences over the nature of [[faith]] and works in the role of [[Christianity#salvation|salvation]], as well as other practices of the Catholic Church that Luther saw as unBiblical, were raised.

== Christian Beliefs ==
Christian beliefs [[Christian apologetics|are well supported via a large body of compelling evidence]]. Theologians, over two millennia, have debated a definitive summary of the Christian faith. While its interpretations vary drastically, probably the most commonly accepted statement of the faith is the [[Nicene Creed| Nicaea-Constantinopolitan Creed]].

Christians and Christian denominations agree on many points of doctrine while disagreeing on some. According to an online Harris poll from 2003, 99% of all American Christians believe in [[God]], 96% in the [[Resurrection of Jesus Christ|resurrection of Jesus Christ]], 93% in [[Heaven]], 93% in the virgin birth, 92% in the survival of the soul after death, 82% in [[Hell]], 50% in ghosts, 27% in astrology and 21% in reincarnation.<ref>http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=359</ref> Note that the latter two beliefs are in opposition to the religious tenants of most Christian denominations.

Nonetheless, the Nicaea-Constantinopolitan Creed offers a general overall picture of what Christian theology looks like, and serves as a useful outline and historic standard. Other creeds may prove helpful in research. See the [[Apostles' Creed]] and the Athanasian Creed.

===God===
{{main|God}}
God is a triune being. Though there is only one Divine nature there are three Divine Personages: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three Persons are collectively called the [[Trinity]] or the Holy Trinity. While God is tripartite, this does not imply that Christians are polytheists. The doctrine of the Trinity is central to Christian theology, although several denominations that usually are considered Christian are non-Trinitarian. The God of the Christian is the creator of all things, is everywhere present, exists in all times, is transcendent, all-knowing (omniscient), just, and all-powerful (omnipotent).

A major theme of the Bible is [[love]]. In the Hebrew [[Old Testament]] the idea is expressed in the Hebrew word ''hessed'', which is variously translated as loyal love, tender mercy, steadfast love, mercy, goodness, etc. in the [[New Testament]] the same idea is expressed in the Greek word ''agape'', which is variously translated as love, compassion, charity, etc.

===Jesus===
[[Image:Jesus' Baptism.jpg|180px|left|]]
During the reign of [[Augustus Caesar|Caesar Augustus]] the Son (i.e. the second Person of the Trinity) took flesh from a virgin woman and was incarnated as a man. He was born in the town of [[Bethlehem]] and was given the name [[Jesus]]. At approximately the age of thirty he was baptised by his cousin [[John the Baptist]] and began to preach in the area of [[Judea]] and [[Galilee]]. About three years later, his teachings and works of mercy prompted the Jewish authorities to plot Jesus' death. Jesus was [[crucified]]. He rose from the dead and was seen by over 500 people. He ascended to Heaven. The four [[Gospels]] contain the basic account of what Jesus did and said.

Jesus summarized his moral teachings in two commandments from the Old Testament:

"'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." ([[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] 22:37-39; [[Book of Deuteronomy|Deuteronomy]] 6:5; Leviticus 19:18)

===Morality===
The fundamental principle in Christian moral teaching is [[love]] and forgiveness, as expressed by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the New Testament. In the Hebrew [[Old Testament]] the idea is expressed in the Hebrew word ''hessed'', which is variously translated as loyal love, tender mercy, steadfast love, mercy, goodness, etc. in the [[New Testament]] the same idea is expressed in the Greek word ''agape'', which is variously translated as love, compassion, charity, etc.

There has been endless debate over how a person should express love for God in his or her moral behavior. This moral dialogue found expression in the New Testament, where the [[Apostle Paul]] addressed such controversies as [[circumcision]] ([[Epistle to the Romans|Romans]] 2:25-29), eating meat that was sacrificed to [[pagan]] deities (1 Corinthians 8), speculating about myths and genealogies (1 Timothy 1:3-5), and observing ceremonial dates and seasons (Galatians 4:9-11).

Regardless of a person's ethical interpretations, adherents commonly point to New Testament passages John 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 as scriptural depictions of love. The former states that <blockquote>"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."</blockquote> The latter characterizes love, saying <blockquote>"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."</blockquote>

Jesus Christ affirmed, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35) In trying to understand the reason for the growth of Christianity in a pagan culture, it has been noted that while love of one's neighbor is not an exclusively Christian virtue, it appears that the primitive Christian church practiced it much more effectively than any other group.<ref>E.R. Dodds, 1970:136-137</ref>

In addition to sacrificially showing care for those within the community as well as to those without, (cf. Gal. 6:10) the Christians elevated the sanctity of life, opposing abortion, infanticide, child abandonment, suicide, and gladiatorial contests.<ref>Kenneth Scott Latourette, ''A history of Christianity'' p. 244</ref><ref> Ted Cabal, Chad Owen Brand, Paul Copan, The Apologetics Study Bible, 274 </ref> While the primitive church tolerated the existing and pervasive cultural economic institution of slavery in the [[Roman Empire]], the mandate of equal pay and just treatment (Col. 4:1; Eph. 6:9) greatly ameliorated the treatment of slaves, while advising them to seek freedom if possible, (1Cor. 7:21) and requiring that the escape slave Onesimus be received back not "as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved". (Philemon 1:6) The Christian ethos of love also motivated a great expansion in the building of hospitals.<ref>Albert John Ochsner, Meyer Joseph Sturm, ''The organization, construction and management of hospitals'', p. 17</ref><ref>Roderick E. McGrew, ''Encyclopaedia of Medical Care'', p. 135</ref> By A.D. 500, most large towns in in the Roman Empire had erected them.<ref>George D. Pozgar, ''Legal aspects of health care administration', p. 2</ref>

===Atonement===
[[Image:Dalí The Christ of St. John of the Cross.jpg|thumb|The Christ of St. John of the Cross by [[Salvador Dalí]], 1951.]]
Christians believe with the New Testament that the death of Jesus, in conjunction with His resurrection, is an indispensable event for the reconciliation of lost sinners with God. There are three elements they see to the understanding of His death on the cross.

- Jesus having the knowledge that His path would lead to his own death, desired and willed that that take place, and persevered in that path though there was opportunity for Him to avoid it. "I have power to take my life and I have power to lay down my life. I lay down my life for the sheep."

- Jesus saw that in His death there would be a way for people to be brought back to the God from whom they were alienated and lost because of their sins. This would involve a substitution of Himself to effect, i.e. atone for, that development. "For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many." How this would take place was not new to the Jews of His day from their understanding of contemporary everyday practice of substitute payment - as in redemption of the first-born (Pidyon Ha Ben), or in the understanding of what aggadic stories such as the Binding of [[Isaac]] implied (see [[Midrash]]), but it was not the prevalent view that the Messiah was to be that payment. Though while alive on earth, he had hinted at it in sayings such as "unless a seed falls and dies, it remains alone, but when it dies, it brings forth..", it was only after He had risen from the dead that He explained Scripture (the Old Testament) clearly about the necessity of His death to have taken place. The disciples would henceforth preach, and Peter among them, that the death of Jesus the Messiah and His resurrection was for-planned and for-ordained by God the Father, and foretold in the Scripture (Isaiah 53).

- Christians of all generations have looked to the perfect Atonement, and the hope for reconciliation, accomplished by Jesus on the cross, to provide the means of understanding the solution to the vexing problems of the mind and of life itself.

===Salvation===
The Bible teaches that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). This is often interpreted to mean that everyone has displeased God and is now separated from him in a kind of alienation and enmity that results from the fundamental conflict between selfish human interests and God's interests (Romans 8:5-8; James 4:4). Jesus offered a solution to this Biblical dilemma in that, by repentance of sins and faith in him (Jesus), their sins would be forgiven. He said that "...the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." ([[Gospel of Mark|Mark]] 2:10) Jesus also said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Mark 2:17).

Jesus Christ taught that "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" ([[Gospel of John|John]] 3:3). Protestant Evangelical Christianity often uses the terms "saved" and "born again" to mean conversion, while other Christians, such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, use the phrase ''born again'' as a synonym for [[baptism|baptized]].

Christians are expected to continue living by Christ's teachings (John 8:31), as is appropriate for "children of Light" (Ephesians 5:8-10). Some believe that this is necessary in order to be saved. Others say that this is a common misconception of the text, that it refers instead to the "fruits" of saving faith. Christians in the [[Reformed]] tradition (following the teaching of the 16th century French lawyer and theologian [[John Calvin]]) say that salvation cannot be lost. One Bible passage often cited is John 10:28-29 in which Jesus said of his own Apostles that they could not be snatched from his hand.

== Resurrection of Jesus Christ ==
[[Image:Jesus resurrected.jpg|thumb|left|200px|"The Resurrection" by Carl Heinrich Bloch]]
The [[Resurrection of Jesus Christ|resurrection of Jesus Christ]] is critical to the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul wrote, "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain" (I Cor:15:14). Traditionally, Christianity has believed in a physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.<ref>http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/crj0056a.txt</ref>

In recent history, [[Gary Habermas]] is considered a leading [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] for defending the resurrection of Jesus.<ref>Habermas, Gary, [http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/dialog_rexperience/dialog_rexperiences.htm Experiences of the Risen Jesus: The Foundational Historical Issue in the Early Proclamation of the Resurrection], ''Dialog: A Journal of Theology'', Vol. 45; No. 3 (Fall, 2006), pp. 288-297.</ref><ref>"Wildcat" and Holding, J.P., [http://www.tektonics.org/books/lichabrvw.html Book review of "The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus"], 22nd June, 2004 (Tektonics)</ref><ref>Habermas, Gary, [http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/NTeSources/NTArticles/CTR-NT/Habermas-Resurrection1-CTR.pdf Jesus' Resurrection and Contemporary Criticism: An Apologetic] ''Criswell Theological Review'' 4.1 (1989) 159-74.</ref><ref>Habermas, Gary, [http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/crj_explainingaway/crj_explainingaway.htm Explaining Away Jesus' Resurrection:
The Recent Revival of Hallucination Theories], Christian Research Journal / vol. 23, no. 4, 2001.</ref><ref>Habermas, Gary, [http://www.apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=/articles/historical_apologetics/habermas-nt.html Why I Believe The New Testament Is Historically Reliable] (Apologetics.com)</ref>
Other notable defenders of the resurrection include: [[William Lane Craig]],<ref>Craig, William Lane, [http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/menus/historical.html Articles: Historical Jesus]</ref> [[Lee Strobel]], [[Josh McDowell]],<ref>McDowell, Josh, [http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html Evidence for the Resurrection], 1992.</ref> [[Edwin M. Yamauchi]],<ref>Jamauchi, Edwin M., [http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/yama.html Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History?]</ref> [[N.T. Wright]]<ref>Wright, N.T., [http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Early_Traditions.htm Early Traditions and the Origins of Christianity], ''Sewanee Theological Review'' 41.2, 1998.</ref> and [[Michael Horner]].<ref>Horner, Michael, [http://www.michaelhorner.com/articles/resurrection/index.html Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?]</ref>

===The Meaning of the Resurrection for Christians===
The fact of the Resurrection of Christ is also believed to produce certain effects on the lives of Christians.

1. It is because Jesus rose from the dead that believers now can resort to a living Savior to help and deliver them from sin and from situations overwhelming for them by their own powers.

2. The New Testament sees in the resurrection of Christ a certain vindication of what apparently to the world and to all beings was a failure and an overcoming of Him by His crucifixion.

3. The coming of Jesus back to life means to the believer that, indeed, his sins are totally forgiven. This is because believers know that His death was as a payment for sins - a "wage of death" for our sins that He received in our stead. If He remained dead, believers would know that the wage had not been fully paid.

4. It is a now-living Savior that Christians know can go before them, can closely lead them through life — as He did when He was on earth. This makes following Him practical and real.

5. The New Testament reveals that it is the Risen Christ who received from the Father the Holy Spirit and He, through Himself, ascended to the Father, has given the Holy Spirit to us. This gives the believer in Christ both the knowledge and the power to live a godly life and live a life that can be an intimately and personally directed one.

6. The resurrected Christ was no mere reassembling of the molecules and particles of the Body that had been crucified. It was, indeed, a physical body, but one that was fully glorified. It was a "spiritual body". Christians know that likewise, they will one day be granted the nature of a spiritual body, and be full of health. They therefore are full of hope and consolation, and consider that, even now in this life, there is an overcoming through Him.

==Evangelism==
In what is called the [[Great Commission]], Jesus sent his disciples out into the world to preach the Gospel (literally "good news") and make disciples.
:'''Great Commission'''
:''But the eleven disciples proceeded to [[Galilee]], to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in [[heaven]] and on [[earth]]." Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the [[#God the Father|Father]] and the [[#God the Son|Son]] and the [[#God the Holy Spirit|Holy Spirit]], teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."'' --[[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] 28:16-20 [[New American Standard Bible|NASB]]
[[Image:Gleyre The Departure of the Apostles.jpg|thumb|240px|The Departure of the Apostles by [[Charles Gleyre]].]]
 

==Internet Evangelism==

see also: [[Internet evangelism]]

Campus Crusade for Christ International (CCCI) is one of the world's largest evangelism organizations within Christendom and has over 25,000 full time missionaries. In 2006, Alan Beeber of CCCI predicted that internet evangelism will result in more conversion that all other forms of evangelism for CCCI combined.<ref>http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/pdf/issues/LWP0206.pdf</ref> At [[YouTube]], Christians and Christian creationists have faced problems with [[atheist bullying|atheist cyberbullies]], but they [[Essay: Sharing your Christian/creationist videos on the internet|have developed methods to overcome this problem]].

== Explosive growth of worldwide Christianity ==
[[File:Hong Kong Christians at Gateway Camp.jpg|thumbnail|left|200px|[[Hong Kong]] Christians at Gateway Camp. In 2005, there were four times as many non-Western World Christians as there were [[Western World]] Christians.<ref>http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30077</ref>
 
(photo obtained from [http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckln/4815046728/in/set-72157624550425162 Flickr], see [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en license agreement])]]
''see also:'' [[Global Christianity]] and [[Internet evangelism]] and [[Evangelical Christians]] and [[Resources on becoming a Christian]]

Christianity has seen tremendous growth over its 2000 year history.<ref>http://users.adam.com.au/bstett/BChristianIncrease12.htm</ref> Christianity has recently seen explosive growth outside the [[Western World]].<ref>
*[http://pewforum.org/Christian/Faith-and-Conflict-The-Global-Rise-of-Christianity.aspx The global rise of Christianity - Pew Forum]
*[http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30077 Is Christianity taking over the planet?]
*[http://pewforum.org/Religion-News/The-stunning-growth-of-Christianity-in-China.aspx The stunning growth of Christianity in China]
*[http://gratefultothedead.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/the-african-apostles-how-christianity-exploded-in-20th-century-africa/ The African apostles: How Christianity exploded in 20th century Africa]</ref> In 2000, there were twice as many non-Western Christians as Western Christians.<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30077 Is Christianity taking over the planet?]</ref> In 2005, there were four times as many non-Western Christians as there were [[Western World]] Christians.<ref>http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30077</ref> There are now more non-Western missionaries than Western missionaries.<ref>http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30077</ref>

In 2011, the ''American Spectator'' declared concerning research published in the ''International Bulletin of Missionary Research'':
{{cquote|The report estimates about 80,000 new Christians every day, 79,000 new [[Islam|Muslims]] every day, and 300 fewer [[atheism|atheists]] every day. These atheists are presumably disproportionately represented in the [[Western World|West]], while religion is thriving in the Global South, where [[Charismatic movement|charismatic Christianity]] is exploding."<ref>http://spectator.org/archives/2011/02/28/thriving-christianity</ref>}}

==Early Church Community and Commitment: The Biblical Period==
[[File:Hoffman Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.jpg|thumb|left|110px|[[Jesus Christ|Christ]] in the Garden of Gethsemane by Heinrich Hofmann.]]

The Bible records that that, at least initially, the church saw itself as united. In the community:

"...they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. {43} And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. {44} And all that believed were together, and had all things common; {45} And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. {46} And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common."(Acts 2:42-47; 4:32)

This community was soon "scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles," due to determined persecution which resulted in the dispersed disciples going "every where preaching the word." (Acts 8:1,4) Christian communities were primarily to be found in two separate cultural and liguistic entities--the Greek and Latin-speaking empires of Europe and the mid-east, and the Aramaic speaking sphere of the Parthian empire of the mid-east and far-east. This latter sphere encompassed not only the eastern portions of Syria, the Arabian peninsula, and Persia, but also extended to portions of southern India and even China. To this day there are many [[Aramaic Church]] members in the Kerala province of south India.

==Early Church Community and Commitment: the Post-Biblical Period==

[[Image:Orthodox churches icon artwork.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Orthodox Church's icon artwork.]]
'''Justin martyr 100 A.D. - 165 A.D. From the "First Apology" (Defense)
'''

<blockquote>
But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced and has assented to our teaching, bring him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the baptized [illuminated] person, and for all others in every place, that we may be counted worthy, now that we have learned the truth, by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments, so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation. Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water; and he taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at His hands. And when he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying Amen. This word Amen answers in the Hebrew language to genoito [so be it]. And when the president has given thanks, and all the people have expressed their assent, those who are called by us deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and to those who are absent they carry away a portion. (Chapt. LXV - administration of the sacraments)</blockquote>

<blockquote>
And this food is called among us Eukaristia [the Eucharist = the Thanksgiving], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;" and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, "This is My blood;" and gave it to them alone... (Chapt. LXVl - of the Eucharist)
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead...(Chapt.LXVll - weekly worship of the Christians)
</blockquote>

'''Tertullian (A.D. 160 -220), an Early ecclesiastical leader and writer, in his ''Apology'' (response to pagan charges) in describing the early church community wrote, ca. AD 197: '''

:We are a body knit together by one faith, one discipline and one hope. We meet together as a congregation, uniting together to offer prayer to God. We pray for the emperors and all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for peace and for the delay of the final end. We read our holy scriptures to nourish our faith, hope, steadfastness and good habits. We hear exhortations and rebukes. We take such judging very seriously – as befits those who believe they are in the sight of God – especially seriously when anyone sins so grievously we have to cut them off from our prayer, our congregation and all sacred things. Our elders preside over us, obtaining that honor not by money, but by their established character. There is no buying and selling in the things of God. Though we have a fund, but not because people can buy religion. Once a month, anyone who wants to makes a small donation – but only he who is able and willing; there is no compulsion. It is not spent on feasts, but to support and bury poor people, to provide for orphans, the elderly old persons, victims of shipwreck and those in prison for their faith.<ref>Defense by Tertullian (39), Trans. Rev. S. Thelwall. Modernized, abridged and introduced by Stephen Tomkins. Edited and prepared for the web by Dan Graves.</ref>

'''Pliny the Younger, the Roman governor of Pontus & Bithynia (northern Turkey) from A.D. 111-113, reporting to emperor Trajan of Christians, whom such pagan rulers found intolerable:'''

:... Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ--none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do--these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.

:They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food — but ordinary and innocent food.<ref>Pliny the Younger Letters, 10.96 </ref>

=== Implications of the growth of worldwide Christianity ===

''see also:'' [[Global Christianity]] and [[Internet evangelism]]

Given the increase in the public's access to global communications, it is thought that the more [[theology|theologically]] [[conservative]] non-Western Christian churches could influence Western Christianity to move in a more theologically [[conservative]] direction.<ref>http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18774</ref> For example, non-Western [[Anglican]]s are exerting influence within the worldwide Anglican Communion against the stance of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion's North American provinces with regard to [[homosexual]] practices.<ref>http://www.maravipost.com/malawi-politics/district/5751-bishop-mw-anglicans-totally-against-homosexuality.html</ref><ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2156406/Anglican-church-schism-declared-over-homosexuality.html</ref>

== Resources related to becoming a Christian ==

''see also:'' [[Resources on becoming a Christian]]

'''Below are some resources on becoming a [[Christian]]:'''

*[http://creation.com/good-news Good news of Christianity]

*[http://www.thewordfortoday.org/?page=C2000 Free audio Bible and Bible audio streaming]

*[http://www.allaboutgod.com/ AllAboutGod.com]

*[[Christian apologetics|Evidence for Christianity]]

*[[Video testimonies of Christians]]

*[http://www.gotquestions.org/repentance.html Repentance]

'''Tips on choosing a Christian church:'''

*[http://www.allaboutreligion.org/choosing-a-christian-church-faq.htm Choosing a Christian Church]

'''Spiritual growth as a Christian:'''

*[http://www.navpress.com/product/9781576839324/The-Pursuit-of-Holiness-Jerry-Bridges The Pursuit of Holiness] by Jerry Bridges
*[http://www.navpress.com/product/9780891099413/The-Practice-of-Godliness-Jerry-Bridges The Practice of Godliness] by Jerry Bridges
*[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/529785.The_Complete_Book_of_Discipleship The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ]

==See also==
'''Denominations or branches of Christianity'''
*[[Roman Catholic Church]]
*[[Eastern_Orthodoxy|Eastern Churches -- Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East]]
*[[Protestantism|Protestant]]
**[[Amish]]
**[[Anglican]] ([[Church of England]])
***[[Episcopal Church]] (USA affiliate)
**[[Baptist]]
**[[Congregationalist]]
**[[Disciples of Christ]] and [[Churches of Christ]]
**[[Evangelical Christianity]]
**[[Friends]]
**[[Fundamentalism]]
**[[Liberal Christianity]]
**[[Lutheran]]
**[[Mennonite]]
**[[Methodist]]
**[[Pentecostal]]
**[[Plymouth Brethren]]
**[[Presbyterian]]
**[[Reformed]]
**[[Seventh-day Adventist]]

'''Disputed'''
*[[Christian Science]]
*[[Jehovah's Witnesses]]
*[[Latter-day Saints]]
*[[Unitarian]]

'''Christianity in the World'''
*[[List of countries by number of Christians]]

'''Other articles'''
*[[Adiabene]]
*[[Essay: The earliest Christian Church, a prison in Armageddon]]
*[[Aramaic Church]]
*[[Cathedral]]
*[[Catholicism]]
*[[Christian apologetics]] (Defense of Christianity)
*[[Christians and the Law of Moses: an essay]]
*[[Christianity and Science]]
*[[Church]]
*[[Conservative Christianity]]
*[[Eucharist]]
*[[Evangelical Apostolic Church of North America (Syro-Chaldean)]]
*[[Christian apologetics|Evidence for Christianity]]
*[[Gospel reading in the Church: the Turgama]]
*[[Inspiration of Holy Scripture: An Eastern Christian and Jewish Perspective]]
*[[Jesus Christ]]
*[[Judaism]]
*[[Messiah]]
*[[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]
*[[Jewish Biblical way of interpretation: a solution for New Testament understanding]]
*[[Early Aramaic Jewish Christian prophesying]]
*[[First Century Aramaic Jewish Christian Gospel and poetry]]
*[[Aramaic Judaism, Jewish Aramaic Christianity, and John 1:1]]
*[[God on earth, the original!: an essay]]
*[[Passover Seder]]
*[[Persecution of Christians]]
*[[Red-letter Christian]]
*[[Sign of the Cross]]
*[[The Sign of the Cross: of Jewish Origin]]
*[[Essay: The Way of Salvation]]
*[[Gates of Hell]]
*[[Anti Abortion activism: a personal essay]]
*[[Transmigration of Words in Religion: an essay]]
*[[Singing the Hebrew Scriptures]]
*[[Christmas in the Holy Land: an essay]]
*[[Essay: How to "get" a church]]
*[[Bible translations]]
*[[Essay: The superiority of the King James Bible: Looking through!]]

'''Internet evangelism:'''

*[[Essay: Sharing your Christian and creationist videos on YouTube and the internet]]

==Further reading==
===Encyclopedias===
* Bodensieck, Julius, ed. ''The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church,'' (3 vol 1965), ECLS perspective
* Brauer, Jerald C. ''The Westminster Dictionary of Church History'' (1971), 880pp
* [http://newadvent.org/cathen/index.html ''The Catholic Encyyclopedia'' (1907-1913)], old but highly detailed and online
** '' New Catholic Encyclopedia'', edited by the Catholic University of America, 17 vol. 1967-1979.
*Cross, F. L., and E. A. Livingstone, eds. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' (3rd ed. 1997), 1840pp; [http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Dictionary-Christian-Church/dp/0192802909/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b excerpt and text search]; online at [[OUP]]
* Elwell, Walter A., ed. ''Evangelical Dictionary of Theology‎'' (2001) 1312 pages; articles by over 200 Evangelical or Fundamentalist scholars
*Hastings, Adrian et al. eds. ''The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought'' (2000) 808pp; 600 articles by 260 Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox scholars; [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0198600240/ref=sib_dp_pt/105-4292297-2766841#reader-link excerpt and text search]; online at [[OUP]]
*''New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge'' (1911), ), major sources of older scholarly articles; mainline Protestant perspective
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc01.toc.html Vol. 1: Aachen - Basilians]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc02.toc.html Vol. 2: Basilica - Chambers]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc03.toc.html Vol. 3: Chamier - Draendorf]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc04.toc.html Vol. 4: Draeseke - Goa]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc05.toc.html Vol. 5: Goar - Innocent]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc06.toc.html Vol. 6: Innocents - Liudger]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc07.toc.html Vol. 7: Liutprand - Moralities]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc08.toc.html Vol. 8: Morality - Petersen]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc09.toc.html Vol. 9: Petri - Reuchlin]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc10.toc.html Vol. 10: Reutsch - Son]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc11.toc.html Vol. 11: Son of Man - Tremellius]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc12.toc.html Vol. 12: Trench - Zwingli]
**[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc13.toc.html Vol. 13: Index]

===Histories===
*Briggs, J. H. Y., Robert D. Linder, and David F. Wright. ''Introduction to the History of Christianity: First Century to the Present Day'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-History-Christianity-Century-Present/dp/0800638123/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200823548&sr=8-4 excerpt and text search]
*Gonzalez, Justo L. '' A History of Christian Thought: Volume 1: From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon'' (2nd ed. 1987); [http://www.amazon.com/History-Christian-Thought-Beginnings-Chalcedon/dp/0687171822/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200823941&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search vol 1]; ''A History of Christian Thought: Volume 2: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation'' (2nd ed. 1987) [http://www.amazon.com/History-Christian-Thought-Augustine-Reformation/dp/0687171830/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200823941&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search vol 2]; ''A History of Christian Thought: Volume 3: From the Protestant Reformation to the Twentieth Century'' (1987) [http://www.amazon.com/History-Christian-Thought-Protestant-Reformation/dp/0687171849/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200808706&sr=8-12 excerpt and text search vol 3]
*Horsley, Richard A. ''Christian Origins: A People's History Of Christianity, Vol. 1'' (2006), 318pp [http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Origins-Peoples-History-Christianity/dp/080063411X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200886474&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
*Latourette, Kenneth Scott. ''A History of Christianity'' (2 vol 1975) [http://www.amazon.com/History-Christianity-Beginnings-1500-Revised/dp/0060649526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200823548&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search vol 1, to 1500], by leading Baptist scholar
*Latourette, Kenneth Scott. ''A history of the expansion of Christianity'' (7 vol 1939-1970), monumental history of missionary work worldwide
*MacCulloch, Diarmaid. ''The Reformation'' (2005), influential recent survey [http://www.amazon.com/Reformation-Diarmaid-MacCulloch/dp/014303538X/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200808706&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
*McGonigle, Thomas D., and James F. Quigley. ''A history of the Christian Tradition: From Its Jewish Orgins to the Reformation'' (1988); ''A History of the Christian Tradition, Vol. II: From the Reformation to the Present'' (1996) [http://www.amazon.com/History-Christian-Tradition-Vol-Reformation/dp/0809136481/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200808706&sr=8-15 excerpt and text search vol 2]
*Pelikan, Jaroslav. ''Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine'' (5 vol 1975-91) [http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Tradition-Development-Doctrine-Medieval/dp/0226653757/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201083460&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search v. 3, 600 AD -1300]]; [http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Tradition-Development-Reformation-1300-1700/dp/0226653773/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201083460&sr=8-4 excerpt and text search vol 4, 1300-1700]; [http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Tradition-History-Development-Doctrine/dp/0226653803/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201083460&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search vol 5, 1700-present] This is the standard history of Christian doctrine.
*Ward, Keith. ''Christianity: A Beginner's Guide'' (2008), 195pp

===United States===
* Ahlstrom, Sydney E. ''A religious history of the American people‎'' (1979) 1192 pages; classic history from broad perspective [http://books.google.com/books?id=5kFF6a1viGcC&dq=inauthor:ahlstrom&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES excerpt and text search]
* Balmer, Randall. ''Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism'' (2nd ed. 2004), 655pp [http://www.questia.com/library/book/encyclopedia-of-evangelicalism-by-randall-balmer.jsp ''Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism'' online edition]
* Lippy, Charles H. and Peter W. Williams, eds. ''Encyclopedia of the American religious experience: studies of traditions and movements'' (3 vol 1988) 1872 pages; standard reference work; long essays by scholars
* Noll, Mark A. '' A history of Christianity in the United States and Canada‎'' (1992), by leading Evangelical historian [http://books.google.com/books?id=VGF3wbzzy9QC&dq=intitle:christianity+inauthor:noll&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES excerpt and text search]
* Queen, Edward L. et al, eds. Encyclopedia of American Religious History'' (3rd ed. 2 vol. 2009) 1200pp
* Reid, Daniel G. et al. eds., ''Dictionary of Christianity in America'' (199)
* Wooley, Davis C. ed. '' Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists‎'' (5 vol 1958-19820; 2565 pages

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/christians/ What Liberals Say - Category: Christians], [[Accuracy In Media]]
*[http://www.christian.com Christian] Social Network
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/jesus-through-fabric-of-our-lives.html Jesus through the Fabric of our Lives]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Real Life and Death: the interplay of Bible, Israel, America]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Who can be saved? Who can not be saved?]
[[Category:Christianity| ]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Worldviews]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Korea

2013-03-16T18:37:20Z

BertSchlossberg: /* See also */

[[Image:Map of Korea.gif|right|250px]]
The Korean Peninsula in [[East Asia]] is currently split into [[North Korea]] and [[South Korea]] because of the issue of [[communism]]. Korea was annexed by [[Japan]] in 1910. The United States and 15 other countries came to the aid of [[South Korea]] during the [[Korean War]], after the North's unprovoked invasion.
 

==Language and Writing==
[[Image:Korean Shaman Painting of The White Horse General.jpg|thumb|Shaman Painting of The White Horse General]]
Although some spelling or words are slightly different between countries, the official language of both South Korea and North Korea is Korean. Five major dialects in South Korea and one in North Korea are mutually understandable among speakers from different areas. <ref>http://www.todaytranslations.com/index.asp-Q-Page-E-Korean-Language-History--31760371</ref> For more than 2,000 years a Chinese system of writing has been known to Koreans. The Chinese system of writing was widely used during the ancient times. After the fifth century AD, Koreans devised three different systems for writing Korean with Chinese characters. (The Japanese systems were similar to these thus Japanese writing is probably modeled on the Korean system.) King Sejong (r.1418-1450) invented the Korean alphabet in 1444. The Korean alphabet has been called many different names but it is currently known as Hangul or Hangeul (depending upon transliteration). Originally called "The correct sounds for the instruction of the people", (''Hunmin jeongeum''), or "national writing" (''Gukmeun''.) the alphabet was also known as "vulgar script", or ''Eonmeun'' by Korea's nobility who felt it was simple next to the traditional Chinese characters. It didn't catch on in Korea until the mid 1800's. <ref>http://library.thinkquest.org/20746/non/info/history.html</ref> Ju Si-gyeong (Korean linguist b. 1876 d. 1914) coined ''Hangul(한글)'' the modern name for the Korean character set. <ref>http://www.omniglot.com/writing/korean.htm</ref> Today, Hangul is honored in South Korea on Hangul Day, on October 9. <ref>http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002529.html</ref>

==Current status==

The [[Korean War]] (1950-53) devastated the South, but it bounced back to become one of the four [[Asian Tigers]]. North Korea is an impoverished [[communist]] [[totalitarian]] regime that has made military strides at the cost of being able to feed its own people.

==Korean Airlines==

The national air carrier of the South Korean state is Korean Airlines. The most famous incident involving the airline is the shooting down by the Soviets of [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] near [[Moneron Island]] just west of the Soviet [[Sakhalin]] Island on Sept. 1, 1983. Among the 269 people on board this flight was a sitting conservative congressman (Democratic) from the state of [[Georgia]], [[Larry McDonald]], a younger cousin of General [[George Patton]]. Staunchly anti-communist, Larry McDonald , just three months earlier, had been elected the second head of the [[John Birch Society]]. Senator [[Jesse Helms]] was scheduled to also be aboard KAL 007 but was spared by boarding the sister flight for the trip from the U.S.to Korea, KAL 015. Both McDonald and Helms, with other congressmen, were on their way to Korea to celebrate the 30th year anniversary of the U.S.-Korea Mutual Defense Treaty.

==See also==
[[Image:Korean flowers.gif|right]]
*[[North Korea]]
*[[South Korea]]
*[[Oriental art]]
*[[Korean Air]]
==External Links==
[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Korean Air Lines Flt. 007: the Secret Soviet Missions to Moneron]

== References ==
<references />

[[Category:Asian Countries]]
[[Category:Korea]]

Navy

2013-03-16T18:02:15Z

BertSchlossberg: /* see also */

A '''navy''' is the portion of a nations [[armed forces]] made up of sailors and [[warships]], and (since 1917), naval aviation.

[[File:NAVY1908.jpg|thumb|550px|U.S. Navy recruting poster, 1908]]

==see also==
* [[American naval history]]
* [[United States Navy]]
* [[Royal Navy]]
* [[The KAL 007 related Soviet/ U.S naval confrontation]]

==External Links==
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ The Russian ramming attempt over KAL 007: a personal account]

[[Category:Navy]]

Singing

2013-03-16T17:49:36Z

BertSchlossberg: /* See also */

'''Singing''' is the act of uttering words in accordance with a [[tune]] or [[melody]]. Those who sing professionally or for pleasure are known as singers.

==See also==
*[[Singing the Hebrew Scriptures]]
[[Category:Musical terms]]

==External Links==
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Music from Heaven, to the Bible, to the mike,and back to Heaven]

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

2013-03-16T17:25:53Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

{{Country
|name =''Союз Советских Социалистических Республик Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik''
|map =Soviet union rel 1986.jpg
|flag =600px-Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg.png
|arms =Coat of arms of the Soviet Union.svg.png
|capital =Moscow
|government =Communist
|language =Russian (de facto)
|area =8,649,538 sq. mi. (1991)
|pop =293,047,571 (1991)
|pop-basis =
}}
The '''Soviet Union''' (Russian: Советский Союз, ''Sovyetskiy Soyuz''), formally the '''Union of Soviet Socialist Republics''' (or '''USSR''') (Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, ''Soyuz Sovietskykh Sotsialisticheskykh Respublik'', abbreviated ''СССР'') existed 1917-1991, then broke into 15 separate countries, most notably [[Russia]]. It was the most powerful established [[socialist]] states in history, coming to power under [[Lenin]] in 1918 and killing millions of its citizens to establish a ruthless Communist dictatorship under [[Joseph Stalin]] in the 1930s. After cooperating with the USSR (1939-41), the Nazi Germans under [[Adolf Hitler]] invaded in a war to the death. The USSR defeated the Nazis in [[World War II]] (1941-45), and took control of most of [[Central Europe]], turning formerly independent countries into Communist satellite states. It was the primary antagonist of the United States during the [[Cold War]] (1947-1989); it then collapsed because of American pressure and its own internal economic and social failures. At its height the USSR covered one-sixth of the earth's land area, stretching from [[Central Europe]] across [[Eastern Europe]] and northern Asia to the Pacific Ocean. Although Russia and most of Soviet republics are [[Western world]] countries, during the Soviet period, a war was declared on Christianity, the country wanted to cut its Western roots and create a brand new civilisation, a communist utopia.

==Geography==
[[File:Siberian cat.jpg|thumbnail|300px|The [[Siberia]]n [[cat]] is the national cat of [[Russia]].
 
 
(photo obtained from [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bugsy_outside4.jpg Wikimedia commons], photographer: Jan Warner, see: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en license agreement])]]
Located in the middle and northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the Soviet Union's 22.4 million square kilometers included one-sixth of the earth's usable land area. Its western portion (European part of Russia), more than half of all European landmass, made up 25% of Russia's total area. European part of Russia (European Russia), however, was where 72% of the people lived and where most industrial and agricultural activities were concentrated. The largest region was the lightly populated [[Siberia]], a land between the Urals and the Pacific that for centuries was infamous as a place of exile, a land of endless expanses of snow and frigid temperatures.

Extending for over 60,000 kilometers, the Soviet border was the world's longest national frontier, sharing a common border with twelve countries, six on each continent. In Asia, its neighbors were the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (North Korea), [[China]], [[Mongolia]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Iran]], and [[Turkey]]; in [[Europe]], it bordered [[Romania]], [[Hungary]], [[Czechoslovakia]] (now [[Czech Republic]] and [[Slovakia]]), [[Poland]], [[Norway]], and [[Finland]].

Approximately two-thirds of the frontier was bounded by water, forming the longest and, owing to its proximity to the North Pole, probably the most useless coastline of any country. Apart from Murmansk, which receives the warm currents of the Gulf Stream, the northern coast is locked in ice much of the year. The search for a warm water port was a central theme throughout Russian history.

A dozen seas, part of the water systems of three oceans--the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific--washed over Soviet shores.
*Size: Approximately 22,402,200 square kilometers (land area 22, 272,000 square kilometers); slightly less than 2.5 times size of United States.
*Location: Occupies eastern portion of European continent and northern portion of Asian continent. Most of country north of 50° north latitude.
*Topography: Vast steppe with low hills west of Ural Mountains; extensive coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia; deserts in Central Asia; mountains along southern boundaries.
*Climate: Generally temperate to Arctic continental. Winters vary from short and cold along Black Sea to long and frigid in Siberia. Summers vary from hot in southern deserts to cool along Arctic coast. Weather usually harsh and unpredictable. Generally dry with more than half of country receiving fewer than forty centimeters of rainfall per year, most of Soviet Central Asia northeastern Siberia receiving only half that amount.
*Land Boundaries: 19,933 kilometers total: Afghanistan 2,384 kilometers' China 7,520 kilometers; Czechoslovakia 98 kilometers; Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) 17 kilometers; Finland 1,313 kilometers, Hungary 135 kilometers; Iran 1,690 kilometers; Mongolia 3,441 kilometers; Norway 196 kilometers; Poland 1,215 kilometers; Romania 1,307 kilometers; and Turkey 617 kilometers.
*Water Boundaries: 42,777 kilometers washed by oceanic systems of Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific.
*Land Use: 11 percent of land arable; 16 percent meadows and pasture; 41 percent forest and woodland; and 32 percent other, including tundra.
*Natural Resources: Oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, timber, gold, manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, mercury, potash, phosphates, and most strategic minerals.

===Administrative-Political-Territorial Divisions===
The USSR was divided into fifteen union republics - the largest administrative and political units - officially known as Soviet republics or union republics. Theoretically they were independent countries; in practice they were controlled by the Kremlin. Nationality, size of the population, and location were the determinants for republic status. By far the largest and most important was the Russian Republic, containing about 51% of the population. In 1989 Russians made up over 51% of the Soviet population and were politically, economically and culturally the dominant nationality, there are more than 100 other nationality groups that make up Soviet society. Fourteen other major nationalities also have their own republics: in the European part are the [[Lithuania]]n, [[Latvia]]n, [[Estonia]]n, [[Belarus|Belarusian]], [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]], and [[Moldavia]]n republics; the [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]n, [[Azerbaijan]], and [[Armenian]] republics occupy the Caucasus; and Soviet Central Asia is home to the [[Kazakhstan|Kazakh]], [[Uzbekistan|Uzbek]], [[Turkmenistan|Turkmen]], [[Kyrgyzstan|Kyrgyz]], and [[Tajikistan|Tajik]] republics.

The Soviet republics were subdivided into administrative subdivisions called autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts, autonomous okruga, kraia, or most often oblasts. These subdivisions made the country easier to manage and some served to recognize additional nationalities.

==People==
[[Image:Solzhenitsyn.jpg‎|thumb|150px|right|The [[Nobel Prize]] winning [[Russia|Russian]] author [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] was exiled from the Soviet Union due to his criticism of the Soviet government.]]
The official Soviet census of 1989 listed over 100 nationalities in the Soviet Union. Each had its own history, culture, and language. Each possessed its own sense of national identity and national consciousness. The position of each nationality in the Soviet Union depended to a large degree on its size, the percentage of the people using the national language as their first language, the degree of its integration into the Soviet society, and its territorial-administrative status. This position was also dependent on each nationality's share of membership in the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU), the number of students in higher institutions, the number of scientific workers, and the urbanization of each nationality.

The various nationalities differed greatly in size. On the one hand, the [[Russia]]ns, who constituted about 50.8 percent of the population, numbered about 145 million in 1989. On the other hand, half of the nationalities listed in the census together accounted for only 0.5 percent of the total population, most of them having fewer than 100,000 people. Twenty-two nationalities had more than 1 million people each. Fifteen of the major nationalities had their own union republics, which together comprised the federation known as the Soviet Union.

The nationalities having union republic status commanded more political and economic power than other nationalities and found it easier to maintain their own language and culture. In 1989 some nationalities formed an overwhelming majority within their own republics; one nationality (the Kazakhs), however, lacked even a majority. In addition to the fifteen union republics, individual nationalities had their own territorial units, such as autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts, and autonomous okruga. The remaining nationalities did not have territorial units of their own and in most cases only constituted minorities in the Russian Republic.

The nationalities that have had a significant political and economic impact on the Soviet Union include the fifteen nationalities that have their own union republics and the non-union republic nationalities that numbered at least 1 million people in 1989. They are the Slavic nationalities, the Baltic nationalities, the nationalities of the Caucasus, the Central Asian nationalities, and a few other nationalities.
*Population: 293,047,571 (1991 estimate). Average annual growth rate 0.9 percent. Density twelve persons per square kilometer; 75 percent of people lived west of Ural Mountains.
*Nationalities: 51 percent of population Russian, 15 percent Ukrainian, 6 percent Uzbek, nearly 4 percent Belorussian, and 24 percent about 100 other nationalities.
[[File:Bezhnoznik u stanka 15-1929.jpg|thumb|260px|A Soviet propaganda poster disseminated in the ''Bezbozhnik'' (''Atheist'') magazine depicting [[Jesus]] being dumped from a wheelbarrow by an industrial worker as well as a smashed church [[bell]]; the text advocates Industrialisation Day as an alternative replacement to the [[Christian]] Transfiguration Day. see: [[Militant atheism]] ]]
*Religions: Religious worship was authorized by Constitution, but Marxism-Leninism, the official ideology, was militantly [[Atheism|atheistic]] (see: [[Militant atheism]]). Reliable statistics are unavailable, but about 18 percent was Russian Orthodox; 17 percent Muslim; and nearly 7 percent Roman Catholic, Protestant, Armenian Orthodox, Georgian Orthodox, and Jewish combined. Officially, most of remainder was atheist.
*Languages: Russian was the official language. Over 200 other languages and dialects were spoken, often as the primary tongue; 18 languages were spoken by groups of more than 1 million each. About 75 percent of people spoke Slavic languages.
*Education: Highly centralized school system with standardized curriculum. Attendance was compulsory through eleventh grade. Strong emphasis on training for vocations selected by central authorities. Indoctrination in Marxist-Leninist ideology at all levels. Science and technology emphasized at secondary level and above. As of 1979 census, official literacy rate 99.8 percent for persons between nine and forty-nine years old. Over 5.3 million studied at universities and institutes, nearly 50 percent part time. All education free, and in many cases students received stipends.
*Health and Welfare: Medical care by government health institutions; free, but of poor quality for general public despite having the highest number of physicians and hospital beds per capita in world. Welfare and pension programs provided, albeit marginally, for substantial segments of population.

===Population===
Seven official censuses have been taken in the Soviet Union (1920, 1926, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979, and 1989). Both the quality and the quantity of the data have varied: in 1972 seven volumes totaling 3,238 pages were published on the 1970 census. In contrast, the results of the 1979 census were published more than five years later in a single volume of 366 pages.

According to the census of 1989, on the day of the census, January 12, the population of the Soviet Union was estimated to be 286,717,000. This figure maintained the country's long-standing position as the world's third most populous country after China and India. In the intercensal period (1979-88), the population of the Soviet Union grew from 262.4 million to 286.7 million, a 9 percent increase.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced declining birth rates, increasing divorce rates, a trend toward smaller nuclear families, and increasing mobility and urbanization. Major problems associated with such factors as migration, tension among nationality groups, uneven fertility rates, and high infant and adult mortality became increasingly acute, and various social programs and incentives were introduced to deal with them.

===Religion===
Over one-third of the people in the Soviet Union, an officially [[Atheism|atheistic]] state, professed religious belief. [[Christianity]] and Islam had the most believers. Christians belonged to various churches: Orthodox, which had the largest number of followers; Catholic; and Baptist and various other Protestant sects. The majority of the Islamic faithful were Sunni. Judaism also had many followers. Other religions, which were practiced by a relatively small number of believers, included Buddhism, Lamaism, and shamanism, a religion based on primitive spiritualism.

The role of religion in the daily lives of Soviet citizens varied greatly. Because Islamic religious tenets and social values of Muslims are closely interrelated, religion appeared to have a greater influence on Muslims than on either Christians or other believers. Two-thirds of the Soviet population, however, had no religious beliefs. About half the people, including members of the CPSU and high-level government officials, professed atheism. For the majority of Soviet citizens, therefore, religion seemed irrelevant.

==Government==
[[File:200px-Coat of arms of the Soviet Union.svg.png|thumbnail|200px|Coat of arms of the Soviet Union]]
:''Main article: [[Soviet Union government]]''
The Soviet Union administered the country's economy and society through decisions made by the extremely authoritarian leading political institution in the country, the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU).

In the late 1980s, the government appeared to have many characteristics in common with other Western, democratic political systems. For instance, a constitution established all organs of government and granted to citizens a series of political and civic rights. A legislative body, the Congress of People's Deputies, and its standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, represented the principle of popular sovereignty. The Supreme Soviet, which had an elected chairman who functioned as head of state, oversaw the Council of Ministers, which acted as the executive branch of the government. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, whose selection was approved by the legislative branch, functioned as head of government. A constitutionally based judicial branch of government included a court system, headed by the Supreme Court, which was responsible for overseeing the observance of Soviet law by government bodies. According to the Constitution of 1977, the government had a federal structure, permitting the republics some authority over policy implementation and offering the national minorities the appearance of participation in the management of their own affairs.

In practice, however, the government differed markedly from other Western systems. In the late 1980s, the CPSU performed many functions that governments of other countries usually perform. For example, the party decided on the policy alternatives that the government ultimately implemented. The government merely ratified the party's decisions to lend them an aura of legitimacy. The CPSU used a variety of mechanisms to ensure that the government adhered to its policies. The party, using its nomenklatura authority, placed its loyalists in leadership positions throughout the government, where they were subject to the norms of [[democratic centralism]]. Party bodies closely monitored the actions of government ministries, agencies, and legislative organs.

The content of the Soviet Constitution differed in many ways from typical Western constitutions. It generally described existing political relationships, as determined by the CPSU, rather than prescribing an ideal set of political relationships. The Constitution was long and detailed, giving technical specifications for individual organs of government. The Constitution included political statements, such as foreign policy goals, and provided a theoretical definition of the state within the ideological framework of Marxism-Leninism. The CPSU could radically change the constitution or remake it completely, as it has done several times in the past.

The Council of Ministers acted as the executive body of the government. Its most important duties lay in the administration of the economy. The council was thoroughly under the control of the CPSU, and its chairman - the prime minister - was always a member of the Politburo. The council, which in 1989 included more than 100 members, is too large and unwieldy to act as a unified executive body. The council's Presidium, made up of the leading economic administrators and led by the chairman, exercised dominant power within the Council of Ministers.

According to the Constitution, as amended in 1988, the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union was the Congress of People's Deputies, which convened for the first time in May 1989. The main tasks of the congress were the election of the standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, and the election of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, who acted as head of state. Theoretically, the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet wielded enormous legislative power. In practice, however, the Congress of People's Deputies met only a few days in 1989 to approve decisions made by the party, the Council of Ministers, and its own Supreme Soviet. The Supreme Soviet, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, and the Council of Ministers had substantial authority to enact laws, decrees, resolutions, and orders binding on the population. The Congress of People's Deputies had the authority to ratify these decisions.

The government lacked an independent judiciary. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts and applied the law, as established by the Constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union lacked an [[Adversary proceeding|adversary court procedure]]. Under Soviet law, which derived from Roman law, a procurator worked together with a judge and a defense attorney to ensure that civil and criminal trials uncovered the truth of the case, rather than protecting individual rights.

The Soviet Union was a federal state made up of fifteen republics joined together in a theoretically voluntary union. In turn, a series of territorial units made up the republics. The republics also contained jurisdictions intended to protect the interests of national minorities. The republics had their own constitutions, which, along with the all-union Constitution, provide the theoretical division of power in the Soviet Union. In 1989, however, the CPSU and the central government retained all significant authority, setting policies that were executed by republic, provincial (''oblast'', ''krai'', and autonomous subdivisions), and district (''raion'') governments.

==History==
:''Main article: [[History of the Soviet Union]]''
===Lenin===
The Soviet Union was established in December 1922 by the leaders of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) on territory generally corresponding to that of the old Russian Empire. A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd overthrew the imperial government in March 1917, leading to the formation of the Provisional Government, which intended to establish democracy in Russia. At the same time, to ensure the rights of the working class, workers' councils (''soviets'') sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir I. Lenin, agitated for socialist revolution in the soviets and on the streets, and they seized power from the Provisional Government in November 1917. Only after the ensuing Civil War (1918-21) and foreign intervention was the new communist government secure.

From its first years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communists, as the Bolsheviks called themselves beginning March 1918. After unsuccessfully attempting to centralize the economy during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to contend for power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. By gradually consolidating influence and isolating his rivals within the party, [[Joseph Stalin|Joseph V. Stalin]] became the sole leader of the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s.

===Stalin===
[[Image:Stalin-140508 27880t.jpg|right|225px|thumb|[[Joseph Stalin]], the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953, founded the League of Militant Atheists, whose chief aim was to propagate [[militant atheism]] and eradicate [[religion]].<ref name=Hesemann-Strieber>{{cite book|author=Michael Hesemann, Whitley Strieber|title=The Fatima Secret|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=tx-BEpkJBq8C&pg=PT107&dq=Joseph+Stalin+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=-DeRTpLrJoPi0QHo88wi&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=Joseph%20Stalin%20militant%20atheism&f=false|quote=Lenin's death in 1924 was followed by the rise of Joseph Stalin, "the man of steel," who founded the "Union of Militant Atheists," whose chief aim was to spread [[atheism]] and eradicate religion. In the following years it devastated hundreds of churches, destroyed old icons and relics, and persecuted the clergy with unimaginable brutality.|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|date=2000|accessdate=09 October 2011}}</ref> See also: [[Atheism]] ]]
In 1928 [[Joseph Stalin]] introduced the First Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy. In industry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization; in agriculture, the state appropriated the peasants' property to establish collective farms. These sweeping economic innovations produced widespread misery, and millions of peasants perished during forced collectivization. Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s when Stalin began a purge of the party; out of this purge grew a campaign of terror that led to the execution or imprisonment of untold millions of people from all walks of life. Yet despite this turmoil, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before World War II.

===World War II===
Stalin tried to divide up [[Central Europe]] with Germany by concluding the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact with Adolf Hitler in 1939. The USSR took over the Baltics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) and the eastern borderlands (Polish: 'Kresy') of Poland, while going to war with [Finland]]. Communists across the world ended their diatribes against fascism, while Stalin provided the German war machine with supplies of oil and grain. Europe was not big enough for two dictators, so in June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The U.S. and Britain formed an alliance with Stalin to fight the Nazis, and poured in [[Lend Lease]] aid. After many humiliating defeats and the loss of three mission soldiers, the Red Army finally stopped the Nazi offensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-43 and then all of [[Central Europe]] before Germany surrendered in 1945. Although severely ravaged in the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict as one of the world's great powers.
===Cold War===
During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, using resourcs stripped from defeated Germany. The Red Army imposed Communist political control over postwar [[Central Europe]] and the Balkans, except for Yugoslavia and Albania. The active Soviet foreign policy helped bring about the [[Cold War]], starting about 1947, which turned its wartime allies, Britain and the United States, into foes. Within the Soviet Union, repressive measures continued in force; Stalin apparently was about to launch a new purge when he died in 1953.
===Khrushchev===
[[File:Nikita Krushchev.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Nikita Khrushchev]] liked to threaten and bully, often using "brinkmanship" (the threat of nuclear weapons); ''Time'' Sept. 8, 1961]]

see: [[Nikita Khrushchev]]

After three years of a join leadership, [[Nikita Khrushchev]] seized power, denounced Stalin's use of terror and effectively reduced repressive controls over party and society. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive, and foreign policy toward China and the United States suffered reverses. Khrushchev's colleagues in the leadership removed him from power in 1964.

===Brezhnev ===
Following the ouster of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, which lasted until [[Leonid Brezhnev|Leonid I. Brezhnev]] established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent figure in Soviet political life. Brezhnev presided over a period of détente with the rest of the West while at the same time building up Soviet military strength; the arms buildup contributed to the demise of [[détente]] in the late 1970s. Also contributing to the end of détente was the [[Soviet-Afghan War|Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]] in December 1979.

After some experimentation with economic reforms in the mid-1960s, the Soviet leadership reverted to established means of economic management. Industry showed slow but steady gains during the 1970s, while agricultural development continued to lag. In contrast to the revolutionary spirit that accompanied the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of cautious conservatism and aversion to change. Brezhnev was succeeded by former KGB head Yuri Andropov.

===Reagan challenge===
Friction with other Western countries continued in the 1980's, especially with the United States and its new president, [[Ronald Reagan]], who saw the Soviet Union for what it was and branded it an "evil empire," partially in response to the Afghanistan occupation. Reagan negotiated with West Germany to provide sites for the basing of Pershing II medium-range ballistic missiles, which was bitterly opposed by Moscow. A short period of confrontation existed between the two superpowers during the period of late-1983 through 1984, beginning with the tragic Soviet attack on a commercial airliner, [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]], over international waters near Sakhalin Island on September 1, 1983, and killing 269 civilians, including a sitting U.S. Congressman, [[Larry McDonald]]; this was followed by events within a military exercise known as Able Archer, in which a falling satellite was mistaken for an incoming ICBM and almost triggered a major war. Reagan's [[Strategic Defense Initiative]], a space-based missile defense system critics derisively dubbed "Star Wars" as well as his expansion of the United States military, also prompted a new, expensive arms race.

Andropov and his successor, Konstantin Chernenko, kept the communist system under Brezhnev intact, but upon Chernenko's death [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] became party chairman.

===Gorbachev and the end of Communism===
see [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]

A reformer, he introduced a series of economic and political reforms known as ''[[glasnost]]'' ("openess") and ''[[perestroika]]'' ("restructuring"), which began to creak open the doors of the Soviet's closed system. A failed attempt to reign in the three [[Baltic States]] in 1989 led to a domino-effect of [[Warsaw Pact]] countries abandoning communism; a coup attempt against Gorbachev in 1991 by hard-liners trying to keep their tattering empire ended within days. The USSR was formally dissolved on Christmas day 1991 by [[Boris Yeltsin]], freeing many from its tyranny. The main successor state to the Soviet Union is [[Russia]]; the effort to form a "Commonwealth of Independent States" went nowhere, and the 15 republics of the USSR are now independent states.

==See Also==
*[[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
*[[Soviet Union government]]
*[[Nazi Germany]]
*[[Korean Airlines Flight 007]]
*[[KAL 007: the Russian Federation support for a water landing]] The Soviet Staff and military communications evidence
*[[Soviet Officers of KAL 007 Shootdown]]
*[[KAL 007: Soviet stalk, shoot down, and rescue mission orders transcripts]]
*[[KAL 007: Timeline of Interception and Shootdown]]
*[[Anatoly Kornukov]]
*[[The Soviet/ U.S naval confrontation]]
*[[KAL 007 and the Soviet Top Secret Memos]]

==Bibliography==
===Surveys===
* Brzezinski, Zbigniew. ''Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century'' (1990)
* Ingram, Philip. ''Russia and the USSR, 1905-1991'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Russia-1905-1991-Cambridge-History-Programme/dp/0521568676/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232394134&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Keep, John L. H. ''Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991'' (1996) [http://www.questia.com/read/25055927?title=Last%20of%20the%20Empires%3a%20A%20History%20of%20the%20Soviet%20Union%2c%201945-1991 online edition]
* McCauley, Martin. ''The Soviet Union: 1917-1991'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=54365219 online edition]
* McCauley, Martin. ''Who's Who in Russia since 1900,'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/103052094?title=Who's%20Who%20in%20Russia%20since%201900 online edition]
* Malia, Martin. ''Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia'' (1995) [http://www.amazon.com/Soviet-Tragedy-History-Socialism-Russia/dp/0684823136/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232396454&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Nove, Alec. ''An Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991'' (3rd ed. 1993)
* Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative
* Suny, Ronald Grigor. ''The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States.'' (1998) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24265044# online edition]
===Lenin and Stalin===
* Bullock, Alan. ''Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives'' (1992), a double biography covering each man in separate but parallel chapters
* Lee, Stephen J. ''Stalin and the Soviet Union'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/read/108215209?title=Stalin%20and%20the%20Soviet%20Union online edition]
* McCauley, Martin. ''Stalin and Stalinism'' (3rd ed 2003), 172pp
* Service, Robert. ''Stalin: A Biography'' (2004), along with Tucker the standard biography
* Service, Robert. ''Lenin: A Biography'' (2002)
* Tucker, Robert C. ''Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879-1929'' (1973); ''Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929-1941.'' (1990) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103246514 online edition] with Service, a standard biography; [http://www.historyebook.org/ online at ACLS e-books]
* Ulam, A. B. ''Stalin'' (1973), good older biography; replaced by Tucker and Service
* Wood, Alan. ''Stalin and Stalinism'', (2004), 105pp [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108863368 online edition]
===Peoples, society, culture===
* Cole, J. P. ''Geography of the Soviet Union'' (1984) [http://www.questia.com/read/7724372?title=Geography%20of%20the%20Soviet%20Union online edition]
* Davis, Nathaniel. ''A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy'' (1995) [http://www.questia.com/read/30537968?title=A%20Long%20Walk%20to%20Church%3a%20A%20Contemporary%20History%20of%20Russian%20Orthodoxy online edition]
* Denber, Rachel. ''The Soviet Nationality Reader: The Disintegration in Context'' (1992) [http://www.questia.com/read/97474829?title=The%20Soviet%20Nationality%20Reader%3a%20The%20Disintegration%20in%20Context online edition]
* Lane, David. ''Soviet Society under Perestroika'' (1992) [http://www.questia.com/read/103443652?title=Soviet%20Society%20under%20Perestroika online edition]
* Lapidus, Gail Warshofsky. ''Women, Work, and Family in the Soviet Union'' (1982) [http://www.questia.com/read/106056669?title=Women%2c%20Work%2c%20and%20Family%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union online edition]
* Lutz, Wolfgang Lutz, Sergei Scherbov, Andrei Volkov. ''Demographic Trends and Patterns in the Soviet Union before 1991'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/103849492?title=Demographic%20Trends%20and%20Patterns%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union%20before%201991 online edition]
* Wixman, Ronald. ''The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook'' (1984) [http://www.questia.com/read/582240?title=The%20Peoples%20of%20the%20USSR%3a%20An%20Ethnographic%20Handbook online edition]

===1918-1939===
* Daniels, R. V., ed. ''The Stalin Revolution'' (1965)
* Davies, Sarah, and James Harris, eds. ''Stalin: A New History,'' (2006), 310pp, 14 specialized essays by scholars [http://www.amazon.com/Stalin-New-History-Sarah-Davies/dp/0521616530/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201494353&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* De Jonge, Alex. ''Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union'' (1986)
* Fitzpatrick, Sheila, ed. ''Stalinism: New Directions,'' (1999), 396pp excerpts from many scholars on the impact of Stalinism on the people (little on Stalin himself) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109468478 online edition]
* Hoffmann, David L. ed. ''Stalinism: The Essential Readings,'' (2002) essays by 12 scholars
* Pipes, Richard. ''A Concise History of the Russian Revolution'' (1996) [http://www.amazon.com/Concise-History-Russian-Revolution/dp/0679745440/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393501&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search], by a leading conservative
* Tucker, Robert. ''Stalinism: Essays in Historical Interpretation'' (1998) [http://www.amazon.com/Stalinism-Historical-Interpretation-Robert-Tucker/dp/0765804832/ref=sr_1_12/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193876953&sr=1-12 excerpt and text search]

===[[Gulag]] and Terror===
* Applebaum, Anne. ''Gulag: A History.'' 2003. 736 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Gulag-History-ANNE-APPLEBAUM/dp/B0007NMYPY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201494284&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Conquest, Robert. ''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (1991) [http://www.questia.com/read/79044140?title=The%20Great%20Terror%3a%20A%20Reassessment online edition]
* Pohl, J. Otto. ''Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/read/9465022?title=Ethnic%20Cleansing%20in%20the%20USSR%2c%201937-1949 online edition]
* Rosefielde, Steven. "Stalinism in Post-Communist Perspective: New Evidence on Killings, Forced Labour and Economic Growth in the 1930s" ''Europe-Asia Studies,'' Vol. 48, No. 6 (Sep., 1996), pp. 959-987 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0966-8136(199609)48%3A6%3C959%3ASIPPNE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V in JSTOR]

===World War II===
* Brandon, Ray, and Wendy Lower, eds. ''The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization.'' (2008). 378 pp. [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24078 online review], on the Holocaust
* Broekmeyer, Marius. ''Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, 1941-1945.'' 2004. 315 pp.
* Overy, Richard. ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia.'' 2004. 448 pp. focus on 1930-45 [http://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Hitlers-Germany-Stalins-Russia/dp/B000FTCH5W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201494219&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Priestland, David. ''Stalinism and the Politics of Mobilization'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Stalinism-Politics-Mobilization-David-Priestland/dp/0199245134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201494105&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Roberts, Geoffrey. ''Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953'' (2006).

===Cold War===
* see [[Cold War]]
* Craig, Campbell, and Yuri Smirnov. ''Truman, Stalin, and the Bomb'' (2008)
* Gaddis, John. ''A New History of the Cold War'' (2006)
* Holloway, David. ''Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956'' (1996) [http://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Bomb-Soviet-Atomic-1939-1956/dp/0300066643/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193876689&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Mastny, Vojtech. ''The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years'' (1998) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98422373 online edition] [http://www.historyebook.org/ online at ACLS e-books]
* Zubok, Vladislav M. ''A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Failed-Empire-Soviet-Gorbachev-History/dp/0807859583/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393695&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
===Khruschev, Gorbachev===
* Brown, Archie. ''The Gorbachev Factor'' (1996) [http://www.questia.com/read/109878423?title=The%20Gorbachev%20Factor online edition]
* Dallin, Alexander, and Gail W. Lapidus. ''The Soviet System: From Crisis to Collapse'' (1995) [http://www.questia.com/read/100838053?title=The%20Soviet%20System%3a%20From%20Crisis%20to%20Collapse online edition]
* Matlock, Jack. ''Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended'' (2005), by leading conservative [http://www.amazon.com/Reagan-Gorbachev-How-Cold-Ended/dp/0812974891/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393695&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Taubman, William. ''Khrushchev: The Man and His Era'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/Khrushchev-Man-His-William-Taubman/dp/0393324842/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393626&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Zubok, Vladislav M. ''A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Failed-Empire-Soviet-Gorbachev-History/dp/0807859583/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393695&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sutoc.html Library of Congress detailed country study on the Soviet Union]
*[http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/intro2.html The Soviet Union and the United States]
*State Defense Committee Decree No. 5859ss [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/l2tartar.html "On the Crimean Tatars"], The Kremlin, May 11, 1944.
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ The Secret Soviet Missions to KAL 007 at Moneron Island]

[[category:Russian History]]
[[Category:Former Countries]]
[[Category:Warsaw Pact Members]]
[[Category:Communist States]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]

Jesus Christ

2013-03-16T17:20:24Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[Image:Alphaomega.jpg|thumb|200px|''"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."'' —Jesus (Rev. 22:13)]]
'''Jesus Christ''' is the Messiah who changed the world forever with teachings of [[love]] and [[faith]], using logical parables like the [[Prodigal Son]] that flow from the existence of [[God]]. "Jesus triumphed over the [[Devil]], and personally set the ultimate example for mankind, by enduring the horrific process of scourging and death by crucifixion under the ancient Roman regime in obedience to God's will."

In religious terms, Jesus is the only Son of God and prophesied [[Messiah]] who, at the appointed time, was sent by His [[God the Father|Father]] and became a man to be the payment for the penalty of sin that separated us from God and to reveal to us the loving nature of God through his human person (1 John 4:10; 2 Corinthians 5:19). Although He was sinless, he bore the penalty for sin upon Himself for us.

Speaking to his disciples, Jesus says,
{{cquote|'''John 14:1-15''' Believers will be in his Father's house Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. “And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus himself is the only way people can access his Father and his Father's house Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you know Jesus, you know his Father “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.}}

By the power of the [[Holy Spirit]], Jesus was conceived in the [[womb]] of the virgin [[Virgin Mary|Mary]], and became man in an event known as the [[Incarnation]], as referred to in Isaiah 7:14. Indeed, the calendar itself reflects this truth, with the traditional calculation of Jesus’ birth marking the first century A.D., that is, "''in the year of Our Lord…''." The [[John the Apostle|apostle John]] wrote in his gospel the following regarding Jesus Christ: "''For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life''" (John 3:16).
{{trinity}}
When he was about thirty, Jesus was baptized by [[John the Baptist]], inaugurating his ministry. Jesus of [[Nazareth]] is the Christ or Messiah, prophesied in the [[Old Testament]] (Greek: Χριστός; [[Aramaic]]: 'משיחא'). Jesus proclaimed that “[t]he time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe in the Gospel.”<ref>Mark 1:14-15.</ref> As signs of these truths, Jesus performed various miracles.

However, not all who heard the Lord believed in him, and, because he “was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God”, some sought to put him to death.<ref>John 5:18.</ref> Jesus was handed over to the Roman governor [[Pontius Pilate]] and crucified. But it was through his redemptive death, as the [[Holy Scripture|scriptures]] had foretold, that Jesus reconciled mankind with God.<ref>Romans 5:10.</ref> And so, on the third day, in a truly historical event, Jesus physically rose from the dead, making possible salvation and eternal life for those who believe in him. Indeed, his very name, ''Yeshua'' (Hebrew 'יהושע') means "[[Salvation]]" and is the concatenated form of ''Yahoshua'', ‘[[YHWH]] is salvation’. After appearing to his disciples on various occasions, Jesus ascended to Heaven, where he acts as our mediator, assuring, by his constant intercession, the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

== Jesus' Life ==
===The Pre-existence of Jesus before His incarnation===
Though it is commonly thought that Jesus had his beginning with His birth or with His conception in the womb of Mary, and that personality begins with birth and develops with age, the Person of Jesus on earth was one and the same Person as was the Son of God in the presence of the Father before the incarnation. That is why the transition of His becoming a man on earth is considered such a great act of humility and self forgetfulness - to have left it all, for us, for which He will always be honored and extolled.

Though he was in the form of God , He did not cling to this equality with God, but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are, and being found as a man, he was even humbler yet, even to accepting death, even on a cross. But God raised him high, and gave him the name which is above all other names, so that all beings, in the heavens, and on the earth, and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus, and that every tongue should acclaim, Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11

===Incarnation of the Son of God===

The Son of God, who was always with the Father before all creation, took upon himself flesh, that is, become a human being, taking the flesh of manhood from his mother Mary but without her being impregnated by any man. He was born of Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of John begins,<blockquote>"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God... and the Word become flesh and dwelt among us"</blockquote>. There are two understandings of this. Though both hold that the Son of God, Divinity Himself, became a man, they understand differently the beginning of the Gospel of John.

The first understanding sees in the Son of God being the Word ("logos" in Greek) that He is the communication of the Father and thus in some sense the purpose of His coming was to mediate the knowledge of God to man among whom He would dwell and be one with them. But as mediator He is in no way inferior to the God He communicates because He Himself is God. The Trinity is emphasized though by implication (the word "Trinity" is of later usage to describe the phenomenon as presented by the New Testament). This understanding rests upon the use of "logos" in Philo and elsewhere meaning "reason", "word", "rationale"

The second interpretation, while in no way negating His coming to be the communication of the Father to man necessitating the incarnation and explicating the Trinity, rather says that we need to look not to Philo and the "logos" philosophy but to the Aramaic Jewish thought of the time. Doing so, we can see that the Gospel of John intends to rip away a veil, and in doing so, will show us that it was God Himself and no mediator, that leaped down to take the form of a human being, and that this is to be spoken of boldly.

Here is how this second understanding is developed:

The Hebrew text is very clear in visualizing the God of Israel in physical terms, even if meant to be understood metaphorically. But the Aramaic Jewish translations of the Hebrew Scriptures will not allow it to be so presented, but will rather speak around it (paraphrase) or use an intermediary word between the physical description and God. In [[Genesis]] 32, [[Jacob]] is wrestling with "a man" but after the bout, Jacob says, in the original Hebrew text, "I have seen God face to face and my life has been saved". In the Aramaic translation, however, Jacob is made to say, " I have seen the ''angel of God'' face to face and my life has been saved". At times, the intermediary word is the word "Word" - in Aramaic, Memra (the root is Aleph, Mem, Resh as in the Hebrew word 'Omer). Whereas the Hebrew text (Gen. 3:8) has it, "They ([[Adam]] and [[Eve]]) heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden", the Aramaic has it, "they heard the sound of ''the Memra'' of the LORD God walking about in the garden" Apparently, walking about in the garden conjured up too much of rustling of leaves and bushes to take figuratively, and so it was the "Memra" that was heard and not the LORD God. This is the pattern in other places in Genesis. Prof. David Flusser of the Hebrew University notes that it is to this mindset that we owe our understanding of John 1:1 and not to Philo and the Alexandrian "logos" philosophy. "In the beginning was the Word (Memra) and the Word (Memra) was with God.. and the Word (Memra) was God. John 1:1 is meant to rip away the distinction between God and the Memra, so assiduously held to by contemporary Judaism, and so declare that they, the Memra and God, are in reality one, ...and this One has, indeed, come down and has become flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. John, in his epistle would later say in wonderment, " Whom we have handled, we have touched and held Him."

===The Flight to Egypt===

King Herod, in his thirst for power and his paranoia at the news that someone was born, whose "star from the east" indicated that there was indeed a claimant to his throne, the Messiah of Israel, sent his garrison, most probably from the fortress Herodian which over looked the town of Bethlehem, Bethlehem, the home of David, the most Illustrious of Israel's kings, would soon experience the death of its two years and under male children, in Herod's pursuit of retention of his power. This has been called the Massacre of the Innocents. But Jesus was not among them as his father Joseph, being warned in a dream, had spirited the family to Egypt. And there they remained until Herod was dead, and Archelaus, Herod's son, was reigning in his stead. But the "Holy Family" was not to return to Bethlehem, but to Nazareth of Galilee, and so Jesus would grow an Israelite and a Galilean, and his first disciples, Galileans. But the fight into Egypt and the return from Egypt to the land of Israel, is seen by the Gospel of Matthew to have another reason intended for it by the Father. The son of God in the writings of Moses was, of course, Israel itself, and the Prophet Hosea would later write, God Himself speaking, "When Israel was a youth, hadn't I loved him, and hadn't I called my son out of Egypt?" But Matthew would write, speaking of the return of Jesus to Israel, from Egypt, in direct reference to the Prophet Hosea's prophesy, "Out of Egypt have I called My Son", thereby letting us know, in his own way, who Jesus is - He is the Son of the Father, the son, who had and would not fail. He is Israel, the remnant, and through Him, the nations of the world would be blessed, along with His people, Israel. In this way does Matthew share in the kalaidoscopic image of who He is. He is the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the Son of the Father, Israel, who not failing, neither in the forty day temptation in the wilderness, nor through any part of His life on earth, became worthy and holy to become the sacrifice for the sins of the others.

=== At Twelve Years Old ===
The account of Jesus' parents finding him in the temple impressing the "teachers" with his knowledge of the [[Old Testament|scripture]] is the only detailed event between Jesus' infancy and adult life that is known.
{{cquote|'''Luke 2:41–51''' Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart.}}

At this early age of twelve years old, there is clearly shown an inner positional or relational commitment of Jesus. Nor is there any indication that this had not been present prior to His twelfth year. His deepest belonging, that against which all other belongings were to be judged, confirmed, rejected, etc. was to the Father, the Father's House, the Father's concerns. This commitment would reverberate at later times, severing ultimate claims on Him of his closest - mother, brothers, sisters, etc. In the presence of these and to their hearing, He would ask, "Who are my mother, and brothers, and sisters? He that does the will of my Father in Heaven is ..." This, in His own life, was the moral authority to demand the same of all others, "You cannot serve two masters..." The memory of what had happened in the Temple when He was twelve, pondering it in her heart, would stand Mary in good stead, when she would see her son hanging on the cross. She also would be found with the disciples in the upper room, praying, and waiting for the coming of the Spirit which He had promised.

====From Heaven's View====
But seen from heaven, a spark had entered into the Temple's precincts, and around that the time, there was to evolve the extra-biblical ceremony and practice of Judaism, which would try to make sense of the need to be anchored into the ancient tradition of God, with the need to make new for every generation the relevance of it for each Jewish youth. And so developed the Bar Mitzvah, the "Son of the Law" ceremony and concept. At the age of 13, a Jewish boy, so it developed, would read or sing out in the synagogue, the Shabbat of his birthday, the prophetic portion (the Haftorah) for that Sabbath assigned to the Torah portion (from the 5 books of Moses, read consecutively), raining down upon him from the Women's Section (Ezrat Nashim) - the Help of Women) above or to the side, hard sweet candy signifying the hope of sweetness set before him. For at that time, the Jewish boy becomes a Jewish man, taking upon himself, the obligations for fulfilling the Law of Moses, and is no longer absolved from this responsibility by the mediation of his father's fulfillment of the Law of Moses for him.

At this time, seen from Heaven, a spark entered in, another way, sometimes seen in other young boys and girls, but in a dim way, an intense concentration on the Father above all things and people, looking and judging all surrounding him from the viewpoint of Him flooding the soul, listening, speaking, believing.
So Jesus reasoned with the rabbis, never being encompassed by them, in the house of His Father. Was it told to us showing what He was and what we could be, or at least, learn to follow in His steps, or was it shown to us to allow us to view another step in His being made perfect, growing in favor with God and Man, totally consumed with the doing of His Father's will, and thus, "being made perfect", to take our place upon the Cross, for our sakes and for our salvation?

=== Ministry ===
==== Baptism ====
[[Image:Jesus' Baptism.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Jesus' Baptism]]
The [[gospel of Mark]] begins with the [[baptism]] of Jesus by [[John the Baptist]], which appears to be the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus came to the [[Jordan River|River Jordan]], where John was preaching and baptizing people in the crowd. After Jesus had been baptized, and had risen up out of the water, Mark states Jesus 'saw the heavens torn apart and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from [[heaven]], 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased' (Mark 1:10–11). Luke adds the chronological anchor that John the Baptist had begun preaching in the fifteenth year of [[Tiberius]] Caesar, approximately in 28 AD (Luke 3:1) and that Jesus was thirty years old when he was baptized (Luke 3:23).

'''The meaning of Baptism for Jesus:'''

Jesus insisted over the protests of John that He be baptized at the hands of John. John's protests are natural enough as John's baptism was for those who were sinners, and implied in baptism was the understanding that the baptizer was somehow greater than the one baptized. John believed that he needed to be baptized by Jesus and not the other way around. But Jesus' understanding of His being baptized was two-fold:"Baptism" meant suffering unto death, and it implied that His impending mission was to be in behalf and in place of the real sinners, the humanity for whom He would die. Jesus would later use "baptism" in the first sense when he said to disciples, "Can you be baptized with the baptism which I will undergo?" The Spirit coming down on the Son in the form of a Dove (Yonah = "Jonah" in Hebrew), and the voice of the Father, "This is My Beloved Son" was the Divine empowerment, and authorization for Jesus' mission to come entailing His sacrificial death, three days, not in the belly of the fish, but in the bowels of the earth, and after that, resurrection. As Baptism for Jesus meant, looking forward, His joining sinful humanity to the point of bearing their sins to the death of the cross, so the later New Testament understands, looking backward, that sinners believing in Jesus are also to join Him in His death through the waters of baptism "in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" - according to the command of the Risen Christ. See [[Christianity]] for Jesus' self consciousness.

==== Temptation ====
After this baptism, according to Matthew, Jesus was brought into the desert by God where he fasted for forty days nights. During this period, the [[Satan]] appeared before him and [[Three Temptations of Christ|tried three times]] to tempted Jesus into demonstrating his supernatural powers as a proof of his divine status; each temptation was refused by Jesus, with a scriptural quote from the Book of [[Deuteronomy]].

Jesus then began to preach. [[Gospel of John|John]] describes three different [[passover]] feasts that Jesus attended, thus implying that his ministry lasted three years.

'''The reason behind the Temptation:'''

The Temptation occurred just as told in the Gospels. But behind the happening, another message lies revealing the identity of Jesus to a people who would understand it. At the foothill of Mt. Hermon, in between the servile Roman infatuated people of Tiberius to the south west of the Sea of Galilee, and the rabidly nationalistic, anti- Roman Zealots of Gamla to the north east, Jesus asked His disciples who He was. The Messiah, the Son of the Living God, was the answer. And Jesus explained who He was and why he had come in terms that fit their experience - not to rule and throw out the Romans, nor to uphold their ways and laws but rather something on a different plane all together - to give His life settling it on the cross.

To a later believing people, those who were not Jewish, who He was would be understood in terms fitting to who they were - He had come the Second Adam, to give His life and to provide new life to those who were not Jewish, but also including the Jews, to all the lost and wandering children of Adam.

In the Temptation, it is the those who knew the Old Testament, the physical children of Abraham primarily, who could see in the long range, and not primarily dictated to by the political passions of the moment, and who could wonder who they were and where they had gone wrong, and wonder also who would be the One to take them out. It is they, Israel, who had been in the wilderness for 40 years, and they that had succumbed to the temptations of selling out for food and drink, though they were a "Son" whom God with a strong arm and outstretched hand had taken out of the bondage of Egypt, they had turned traitor, driven by their own lust and pride. And here now, in Jesus, was One who resisted the devil in the wilderness, also "for forty", preferring the will of God as His food rather than all the world could offer, Who was He? He was Israel! The only true one left, the faithful remnant spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, the servant true to the end. As the letter to the Hebrews saw, "Though He were a Son yet learned He obedience by the things He suffered, and being made perfect, He become the author of Eternal life...". This is the understanding of the Gospel of Matthew, in interpreting a passage from Hosea which was manifestly speaking of Israel the people and applying it to Jesus who also came out of Egypt with His parents at the death of Herod, " Out of Egypt have I called my Son". Who was Jesus? He was Israel who had ''not'' failed come to redeem Israel who had, and also out of all the peoples of the world.

==== Disciples and Apostles ====
[[Image:Jesus5.jpg‎|thumb|left|100px|Jesus Christ (Artist's impression)]]
The larger part of this was directed towards his closest followers, the [[apostles]], although all of his followers were considered [[disciples of Jesus|disciples]]. At the highest point of his ministry, Jesus attracted disciples and audiences numbering in the thousands; in particular in the area of Galilee. Many of Jesus' most well-known teachings were given during the [[Sermon on the Mount]], such as the [[Beatitudes]] and the [[Lord's Prayer]]. Jesus often used parables in his rhetorical technique, such as the [[Parable of the Good Samaritan]] and [[the parable of the sheep and the goats|the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats]]; these teachings encouraged unconditional self-sacrificing [[Shema|love for God]] and [[Agape|for all people]]. During these sermons, he also discussed service and humility, forgiveness of sins, how faith should be applied, the [[Golden Rule]], and the necessity of following the spirit of the law as well as its wording.

'''Their choosing and their purpose:''' Among the many who came to Jesus, from afar and from the surrounding villages of the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, were those moved by his insight into the nature of life, or touched deeply by His seemingly knowing them from the inside, by His intimacy with the God and Father they had only known "about", or impressed by the miracles done before their very eyes, and many, by His deep compassion for the people, so evident in all that He did. Jesus would sprinkle His words upon them as seed in a path, some to take root, and some to be blown away by the wind. But to those who heard and wanted more, they would get that more, receiving explanation, and move closer to His association. Those that would not, would receive only that which was commensurate to not wanting - more parables, silence. Never the revealing of the "Secrets of the Kingdom". Yet, there was no prohibition and no limit for getting closer to Jesus. Those that did, became His "learners" - the disciples, understanding the meanings of His word by the demonstration of His life and putting them into practice. Among these were another group, some that had been with Him from early on, possibly some from the time of His baptism at the hands of John. These He would hold in His mind for an additional and different reason.

Then one night, he ascended a hill praying about them, and came down knowing who they were to be. 12 in number, chosen not because of their virtue, or even what He would do in them in the future, but rather solely chosen by His Father to be deputized, delegated, or commissioned by Jesus to be sent out for a mission. He gave them the name "Shaliach" (meaning all that), which was translated into Greek as "apostolos" and so our Apostles.

The mission of the Apostles (see "Example 5." of [[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]) was to do all that they saw Jesus was doing, healing the sick, raising the dead, and with all this, to tell about the fast coming Kingdom of Heaven, the rule of His Father, and urge people to repent and get ready for it. He gave them His power and authority to do all this. But it was to be 12 in number, not more and not less, that number surviving even the suicide of one of them, Judas from the village of Kyriot, requiring an "election" to bring back the number from 11 to 12. And that was because the special additional reason for their appointment was to sit on the 12 thrones of the 12 tribes of Israel (the sons of Jacob) and lead them by whatever it takes - that is the meaning of the biblical term "Judge" (Shofet)*. For the community of the "little ones"., was to be, in some sense, an Israel within Israel, or a new Israel, a sort of beachhead for the onslaught of the Kingdom of God in its invasion (or sometimes, infiltration into) into and onto the Kingdom of the unjust occupier and enemy of all Goodness, the Devil, to overthrow him and all his works. This truer and newer Israel, He called His "Called Out ones" (Eklessia=Church) against whose onslaught the Fortified city of Hell with its defensive bars to its massive gates, would not prevail. Many captives would be released. The Church, then, was the community counterpart to what was known as the "Synagogue" (Greek), meaning "gathered together ones" (Beit Knesset - house of the gathering, Hebrew). It was the Synagogue of Jesus the King and Messiah, and aligned with and the focal point of the Prophetically promised and hoped-for Kingdom of God and the rule of Heaven on Earth. And the disciples and apostles of Jesus all had their place in the unfolding of it all.

*Note: For the significance of sitting on the seat and judging, see Example 2. of [[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]].

==== Social Outcasts ====
[[File:Cordero El Redentor y la mujer adultera.jpg|thumb|300px|left|El Redentor y la mujer adultera by [[Juan Cordero]].]]
Jesus also often conversed with social outcasts, such as the publican ([[Rome|Roman]] tax collectors who were unpopular for their practice of extorting money).

Jesus showed no partiality toward outcasts, and neither did He do so to those who were in society. But being an outcast was a category beyond the reach of all others which were in society. Jesus was not for the male over against the female, the Jew over against the non Jew, townsman over against the man of the field. He was impartial and penetrating in His love for all. But all of these had a certain standing in Society, they were part of it, though all being in it, could vie for more of it as their share. But all were united, and could work in concert against what they were not - the outcast. The love of Jesus and the love of His Father through Him, could not rest lightly on any one of them, until it would reach and rest on the one beyond the fringes, the outer edges, and down below - the outcast. This demonstrated in the life of Jesus what the Cross would later show and the Apostles preach - all were outcast to the Holiness of God, and all could be loved by Him and, indeed, were.

==== Miracles ====
Throughout his ministry, Jesus performed many miracles including healing the sick and possessed, feeding 5000, and even raising from the dead.

Miracles were an intrusion of the ordinary, but the ordinary of a different and far-superior Kingdom, into the sordid and sin sick kingdoms of this world. They showed what life was really like there in that Kingdom which was coming and how weak, unstable, subject and cringing were the powers of this corrupted world, "bent" under the heel of God. That a widow should have her dead son restored to her alive, that outcasts such as lepers should be restored to the community, and as a result of their being healed, that darkness should give way to light and sight, that a woman deserving stoning find solace and forgiveness, all of these are the way things are and ought to be in the Kingdom of God because of the way He is. They were, at one and the same time, signs of the Kingdom which was coming and great works of compassion done here below which will never by surpassed or forgotten. And Jesus the Messiah was bringing them in!

Note: See Example 5 of [[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]] for the assault and infiltration of God's Kingdom on and into the Kingdom of Satan.

==== His Preaching was Offensive to the Established Authority ====
As He preached, Jesus ran afoul of the [[Sanhedrin]], the recognized Jewish religious authorities, who were allowed to have considerable religious, political and monetary influence under Roman rule. Jesus chastised them, accusing them of making laws for the people to follow that were the laws of men, not God. The Sanhedrin tried to set traps for Jesus by asking Him questions to either discredit Him with the people or get Him in trouble with the Roman authorities, but all of their efforts failed and they gave up. They lacked the means to stop Jesus until [[Judas Iscariot]] came to them and offered to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He would tell them where Jesus would be that night so they could seize Him.

Notable among Jewish established authorities were the Pharisees, the Saduccees, and the Herodians.

The Pharisees, believing that at the time God had given to Moses the "written Torah" (Torah shebikhtav), He had also given to Moses an "Oral Torah" (Torah shebe'al peh) which would apply the written Torah to all situations and times, and that that Oral Torah had been handed down from generation to generation, finally, it itself written down, making, in the days of Jesus, the beginning of the Talmud. Thus it was necessary to be able to "fill in the rabbis" from whom the teaching came (see [[Judaism]]) - "Rabbi Tarfon says in the name of Rabbi..." But this man Jesus, goes straight to Moses, and straight to Heaven! ''"You have heard it said...but I say unto you..."'' and himself speaks as the ''Mouth of God!''

The Saduccees, not believing in an Oral Torah, and believing much of the written Torah to be irrelevant and impractical in the modern times that they lived, believed that the "blanks" and how the Torah was to be applied in these days, must be decided by the Kingdoms of the World, namely, Roman law and requirement. But this man Jesus speaks of another Kingdom and another King, and not of Rome!

The Herodians saw clearly who their enemy was and who their Savior was and wherein their safety lie - Herod the King of the Jews and all the aura and the might that he possessed. And their enemy was anyone who would claim, or live in the claim of others, that it was he that was the King of the Jews and not Herod (and the royalty after Herod) - such as was doing the man Jesus of Nazareth

Note: Judaism does not have a "unified" theory of Inspiration or practical authority of Scripture. That is, The most authoritative, and capable of being regulatory to life as "law" is the five books of Moses. After that, the Prophets. And after that, the "Writings." The Scripture of the Saduccees was just the Five books of Moses, and since there is little if anything about the resurrection from the dead and the after life in the the Five Books of Moses, they believed in neither. The Pharisees, believing in the on-going of revelation extending, though with lesser authority, to the Prophets (such as Daniel) and the Writings, believed in both.

===The Turning Point===

It was at the city built in honor of Herod's son Phillip, Ceasarea Philippi, dedicated to the worship of Pan at the subterraenean breakout of the spring which was tributary to the Jordon River, the Ban(Pan)ias, that Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do men say that I am?, Simon finally answered, You are the [[Messiah]], the Son of the Living God. Jesus responded that flesh and blood had not revealed this fact but His Father had. Then Jesus gave him his new name Peter, meaning rock, and told him that he and the Church to be built on the rock would be thrown against the very gates of Hades itself, gates which would be unable to withstand the onslaught, setting Hell's captives free. (See Example 5. of [[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]). From that place of confession, and from the time of Peter's confession itself, Jesus began to refine to His disciples, excluding all doubt and ambiguity from their minds as to the purpose of His coming, what it was all about. He the Messiah had come to die. They were to go up to Jerusalem, and there he would be rejected and denounced by the priests and elders, handed over to the Gentiles, and be put to death. And so began the 3 days journey from Caesarea Philippi, then along the eastern shore of the Sea of Galillee, along the Jordon river valley, through Jericho, and then the ascent to Jerusalem, Jesus telling his followers repeatedly the same message of His rejection and death, and then, if they could take it in, in such a way as not to suppress from their consciousness the main message He needed to instill into their acceptance, that of his humiliation and death, His subsequent resurrection form the dead. As the Gospel of Mark would record the words of the Lord, "For the Son of Man has not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life for the ransom of many"

=== Last Days of Jesus' Life ===
==== Lord's Supper ====
'''God and man at table are sat down:'''
[[Image:The Last Supper WM.jpg|right|300px]]
It happened before - "Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. and seventy elders of Israel. They saw the God of Israel...they gazed on God. They ate and they drank." Exodus 24: 9-11

It would happen after - "Now while He was with them at table, He took the bread and said the blessing, then He broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and recognized Him. But He had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us on the road, and explained the Scriptures to us?" Luke 24:30-32

Eating before the Lord or with the Lord, would be used as the highest form of friendship - Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any one hears My voice and opens the door I will come in to him and share my meal with him, side by side.". Revelation 3:20-21 (NIV)

At the [[Passover Seder]], the last meal the Lord would eat with His followers, His presence so permeated the atmosphere, and what He said and did at that special time, and especially they having received His command to do just what He was doing before them at this time, whenever they would meet together, the Apostles of the Lord and the Gospels after them could not speak of bountiful and miraculous times of the Lord's gracious giving of food feeding the multitudes, without mentioning that which otherwise would not have been mentioned - ''He took the bread, looked up to heaven blessing the bread, He broke the bread, and He gave it to them.'' That is what the Lord did before them, and that is what He commanded them to do after Him, and thus provided for them, and for the Church after them, the one of two universal services - the [[Lord's Supper]], or [[Eucharist]], or [[Holy Communion]].

But in addition, He gave His own particular understanding to the unleavened bread of the Passover and ceremonial cup of wine, the 3rd and "Thanksgiving cup" of wine drunk immediately after the Passover meal was eaten. In slightly varying words, the Gospels and the Church after would perpetuate that understanding by repeating what the Lord Himself said at that Last Supper - "This is My Body which is given for you... This is My blood, the blood of the New Covenant which is shed for you, and for the many, for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as my own Remembrance". And so He signified to His followers that His life would be given in sacrifice for them and for their benefit. How this benefit would be effected, would be explained by Jesus by other sayings, "Do not think that I have come in order to be served. I have not come to be served but rather to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many."

But His presence remained with them at the continual celebration of this new Christian [[Passover]] of the Communion. Though He had vanished from their eyes as He would return to the Father, yet through the Spirit which He had promised to be in His stead, He was there with them to remain- "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I!"..." Even so, Come Lord Jesus!"

Note 1: The word Maranatha, comes from the Greek word which is translating the Aramaic which comes in two forms according to the accent given. Marana tha - "O our Lord, come!", and Maran atha - "Our Lord has come". This appears in the earliest liturgies of the Eucharist, and was used either as an invocation for the Lord to come, a sort of invite, or as an exclamation that the Lord has indeed come, just as He said He would. In either case, it was a witness to the belief that the Lord was indeed with them when they participated in the Remembrance which He had commanded.

Note 2; What the Lord said, "This is my body... This is my blood...Do this!" (the "Words of Institution", His instituting the Holy Communion until His coming again), is absent in the Gospel of John when recounting the last time of the Lord with His disciples. This is not an oversight, as the Gospel of John, from all contextual indications, has already spoken of the matter in the 6th chapter.

==== Garden of Gethsemane ====
[[Image:Jesus in Gethsemane.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Jesus in Gethsamane]]
Jesus knew that His time was short and that He was about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. He had His last supper with his disciples and went with them to the [[Garden of Gethsemane]] and prayed vehemently knowing what was about to come.

Decision, certainty, from a distance is clearer and easier than when the time approaches for decision's implementation. That is because the here and now, leaves no room for imagining a rescue from all that is around us and in us. Leaving us confused or uncertain, needing assurance, or a once again revelation, of what it was that brought us to decision in the first place. John knowing from the beginning that his cousin Jesus was the promised Messiah, when years later, found himself in prison, and things not going the way he had expected, understood or hoped, required assurance that Jesus was really the One he had thought Him to be. Jesus responded forcefully and completely to that so human request - Tell John what you see, the dead are raised, the sick healed, and the poor are being told of the good news of the Kingdom of God. And it was enough.

Jesus, knowing why He had come, and that He was to mount the cross, to bear the sins of the world, knowing also what that must mean, He who had never "known" sin, now to know it in a way, that man could never know, man who all the time was in it, inured to it, accustomed to it, Jesus prayed. There was a movement in His prayer, taking on anew, the certainty and decision of old, feeling the enormity of it at close hand, and in the garden, he prayed three times, each time agonizing* dripping great drops of sweat, each time making movement in the direction from ''If there be another way, The Father knows and will show, but He would do whatever the Father wills'', towards ''being the Father's will, He would do it. There really is no other way''. And then it was done, He had settled it within Him anew, having prayed, and having received the deep silent Amen of the Father within His soul. It was enough. He was ready.

*note: "Agonize" of the text is from the Greek word "to struggle".

==== Tried before Jewish Authorities ====
Jesus was betrayed by Judas into the hands of the Jewish religious authorities who took Him away and secretly put Him on trial during the night, trying to find justification for their desire to have Him killed. Finally, they convicted Him of blasphemy. For the location of the Jewish trial, see Example 6 of [[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]

==== Tried before Roman Authorities ====
As they did not have the authority to put a man to death, they took him to [[Pontius Pilate]], the Roman governor of Palestine, with their charges and demanded his execution. Pilate avoided the issue by sending him to [[Herod Antipas|King Herod]] since Jesus was a Galilean, but Herod sent him back to Pilate. Pilate at first tried to release Jesus with a flogging, and then gave the crowd a choice to either spare Jesus or a criminal called [[Barabbas]] as part of the passover tradition. The crowd chose to free Barabbas [Aramaic: "Son of a (the) Father") and Pilate washed his hands to signify that he bore no responsibility for Jesus' death before ultimately condemning Him to [[crucifixion]].<ref>Matthew 27: 15-44</ref>

==== Scourging ====
The penalty of crucifixion was always preceded by scourging (flogging) with the Roman ''flagellum''. a short ox-hide whip knotted with pieces of zinc, lead, and bone which removed swaths of the victims' skin with every stroke. Although the Bible mentions the scourging of Jesus only very briefly, it must have been particularly brutal from the relatively short amount of time Jesus lingered on the cross after the punishment. Victims who suffered less blood loss from the scourging were known to remain alive on the cross for two or three days.

The scourging and physical affliction of Jesus, though not overtly alluded to, may have a significance for benefit to come. There was a prophecy of the Suffering Servant to come:

"Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, 
and He carried our pains; 
but we in turn regarded Him stricken, 
struck down by God, and afflicted." Isaiah 53:4

The Gospel of Matthew would see in this prophesy a foretelling of the various healings and deliverances that Jesus gave to the people, "so that what was spoken through the prophet [[Isaiah]] might be fulfilled: He Himself took our weaknesses and carried our diseases (Matt. 8:17) If not the scourging itself, then all of the sufferings of the Lord, culminating in His sacrifice on the cross, was the source not only for forgiveness, but also for all the many types of healings and restorations for the people.

==== Death on a Cross ====
[[Image:David Christ on the Cross.jpg|right|thumb|Christ on the Cross by [[Jacques Louis David]].]]
Jesus died after suffering and giving up his spirit.

Behind the Cross was the sum total of all the maladies of mankind, that the Old Testament unveiled : Pesh'a - conscious and "high handed" rebellion, for which , under the Old Covenant, there was no forgiveness provided, Khet - an unintended "missing of the mark", as in the deviation from the bull's eye of the bowman, Shigi'a - the mistakes, some causing great harm to others, which come about by plain ignorance, and 'Avon "iniquity" or distortion - the inner twistedness, that causes failure and suffering, seemingly from the very structure of our persons regardless of our intent. These were the sins Godwards as well as towards man, and these are all, Scripture revealed, repugnant to the nature and standard of a Holy God.

On the Cross, in a way which is unfathomable to man, but nonetheless believable, the repugnance fell upon Jesus, the Son of God, and again in a way not fully understandable to us, but believable nonetheless, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not considering us the sinners but rather His own dear Son who had no taint upon Himself. A great transaction had taken place by the imposition of Himself of Christ in our place, absorbing, as if He were a blotter, all the reaction of a Holy God upon Himself, in our place, that we might go free. Unfair to Him, Mercy to us. Yet Jesus was not forced to do it. He did it both in His great love for us and in His obedience to the way that the Father had decided. "No one takes my life from me. I have power to take it and I have power to lay it down...I lay down my life for the sheep". Peter would say, "The Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." Paul would say, "He was made to be sin, He who did not "know" sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him". That was Friday.
[[File:Veronese Lamentation.jpg|thumb|left|[[Paolo Veronese]], Lamentation.]]
On Saturday, when all were at Sabbath's rest, Jesus was not. His body dead, He passed in spirit to those that had died before, those in the period of Noah, and proclaimed, as Peter taught, what He had done. On Sunday, the first day of the week, He would rise from the dead.

The Cross of Christ, and the atonement He accomplished on it, is the very grounds that anyone who will be saved can be saved. The shedding of His blood brings salvation, to anyone who will respond, according to the ability that they have, that is given them. That brings forgiveness and acceptance, even welcome, to the murderer such as Paul, the adulteress such as the "woman taken in adultery", the tax-collecting extortionist, a seeker in the night turned believer, as hopefully Nicodemus proved to be, people that just know that they are sinners without any "grave sin" to specify, and also the "fetus" whose life was cut off in the womb as a "thing", and the severely retarded child banging his head in the institution he finds himself. All, according to the light given them, and repentance and turning to God given to them, will one day know just what was the basis for their salvation - the Cross of Christ. Those who reject, will also one day know the basis by which they could have been saved if they had not rejected - the Cross of Christ
{{Clear}}

=== Resurrection ===
:''See main article: [[Resurrection of Jesus Christ]]''
On the third day after his death, Jesus [[resurrection of Jesus Christ|rose bodily from the dead]]. The [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] Michael Horner of [[Campus Crusade for Christ|CRU]] has an excellent resource which offers a defense of the [[resurrection of Jesus Christ]] entitled [http://www.michaelhorner.com/articles/resurrection/index.html Did Jesus really rise from the dead?]. In addition, Dr. [[Gary Habermas]] offers [http://www.garyhabermas.com/audio/audio.htm an online audio library which defends the resurrection of Jesus Christ.]

Jesus' resurrection from the dead was no mere reassembling the molecules of His dead and disintegrating body, but it was a new union of His Spirit and body, in a way that could only be called by the Apostle Paul, in reference to ourselves, when we, in turn, following His pattern, a ''spiritual body''. Having risen from the dead, He was physical enough to eat and drink with His disciples, and we can assume to digest, as well as ingest, and to be touched and felt, having Thomas' hand thrust into His spear riven side, and yet, strangely not held by the physical laws of before, passing through the door to the room where the disciples were assembled, "Peace be upon you!", and to physically ascend, in the sight of all, from a location on the Mount of Olives into the presence of the Father In some way, even the disciples on the Road to Emmaeus, could not recognize Him, perhaps an aspect of the changed body, perhaps the power of the will of Jesus himself blinding them to the fact that It was He, until the breaking of the bread.
Jesus had risen, the stone unrolled, not to let Him out, but to let others in - to have the basis for their testimony, that He is risen indeed!
By the regaining of His life in the resurrection from the dead (Scripture asserts that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that this took place) Jesus was "certified" to the Church, and to all that would come after, that He was indeed the Son of God, that the verdict of death to Him given by men, was not so much overturned, but used in a far superior way by the Father to accomplish His will for redemption, and has given Him, at the last, ''vindication''.

And for mankind, its individuals in the millions through the centuries who had believed in Him, there came the certainty, that death was also not to be their end, that they too will arise with Jesus, that death, the annihilation of all, or a future only to be dreaded, was not to be their end, that the Presence of Jesus who had gone before them, was a welcoming one, that He had found a way, and now they would be with Him forever and ever, and with good hope for the sight of loved ones again. Death had been conquered and fear could be too.

In recent history, Dr. [[Gary Habermas]] is considered the foremost [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] for defending the [[Resurrection of Jesus Christ|resurrection of Jesus]]. Other notable defenders of the resurrection include: [[William Lane Craig]], [[Ben Witherington]], [[Lee Strobel]], [[Josh McDowell]], [[Edwin M. Yamauchi]], [[N.T. Wright]], and [[Michael Horner]].<ref>
* http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/menus/historical.html
* http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html
* http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/yama.html
* http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Early_Traditions.htm
* http://www.michaelhorner.com/articles/resurrection/index.html</ref> In addition, much has been written defending the resurrection of Christ in the field of [[Christian Legal Apologetics|Christian legal apologetics]]. In addition, legal scholars, legal authorities, and eminent lawyers such as [[Simon Greenleaf]], John Warwick Montgomery, Lord Darling, John Singleton Copley, [[Hugo Grotius]], Lord Caldecote, J. N. D. Anderson, [[Lionel Luckhoo]], and many others have asserted that western legal standards argue for the resurrection of Christ.<ref>
*[http://www.bibleteacher.org/sgtestimony.htm Testimony of the Evangelists by Simon Greenleaf]
*[http://www.mtio.com/articles/bissart1.htm The Jury Returns: A Juridical Defense of Christianity by Dr. John Warwick Montgomery ]
*[http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/apologetics/AP0302W3.htm The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ]
*[http://lawreligionculturereview.blogspot.com/2008/05/rules-of-evidence-tools-of-truth.html Rules of Evidence - Tools of Truth]
*[http://www.phc.edu/gj_philjohnsonpap.php JURIDICAL APOLOGISTS 1600-2000 AD]</ref>

===Appearances of Jesus to His followers===
For forty days after his rising from the dead Jesus made appearances to His followers. These appearances were different from other risings from the dead, both in the Old Testrament and in the New Testament. These others are best understood as resusitations from lifelessness.
That is, the people had really died, and really had been brought to life but there type of life was no different in kind from what it was before their death. A prime examploe in the New Testament was Lazarus. All of them, died a second time, waiting for the Resurrection. The very first to attain to the Resurrection was Jesus Christ, and as the first he came the "first fruits" of us all. The resurrected body of Jesus was both the same and different from what it was prior to His death. It could pass through "solids". It coulo be changed, if this be the right interpretation, in such a way as be unrecognizable. And yet it was no mere vision, unreality, or a non-physical "spiritual" reality. He could eat and drink and be touched and felt. He was real in the ways that we know realness. And we too, according to Paul, will be one with Him in having "spiritual bodies".
"And that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve, after that, He asppeared to 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living,though some have fallen asleep.Then He appeared to James, and then to all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me..."I Corinthians 15:5-8

=== Ascension into Heaven ===
He was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him form their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, "why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky. Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen Him go there." Acts 1:9-11

Scripture posits two purposes related to man for the ascension of Jesus: 1. it was to the right hand of the Father (showing favorable disposition of the Father to the Son to hear His requests) from which position Jesus intercedes to the Father on our behalf, and 2. Having ascended to the Father, He received from the Father the Spirit. The Father pours out the Spirit "through the Son" upon the Church. The "first Pentecost"

=== Return of Jesus from heaven to earth===
I gazed into the visions of the night and I saw coming on the clouds of heaven, One like a son of man. He came to the One of Great Age and was led into His presence. On Him was conferred sovereignty, glory and kingship. And men of all peoples, nations, and languages became His servants. His sovereignty is an eternal sovereignty which shall never pass away. Nor will His empire ever be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14

The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the Archangel and with the Horn of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are still alive remaining here will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so will we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thess. 4: 16,17

You were converted to God and became servants of the real, living God; and how you are now waiting for Jesus, His Son, whom He raised from the dead, to come from heaven to save us from the retribution which is coming. 1 Thess, 1:9,10

==Jesus' Self Consciousness==

Jesus, conceived of the Holy Spirit, presented a disturbing surprise to his earthly father, Joseph, knowing he had not impregnated his fiancée, Mary. She would ponder the meaning of this miracle all the days Jesus would grow and finally she would behold her son expire on the cross. But Joseph, told by the Lord who his son really was, and how he had come about, and being warned by the Lord to flee the murderous Herod, took his family to Egypt - until the death of Herod made it safe ("Out of Egypt have I called My Son") to return to Israel. The family settled in Nazareth on the elevated rim of the Jezre'el Valley where he grew well and observably no different from the other youth. But when he was about 12 years old, he was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem, and displayed his consciousness that His real Father was God rather than Joseph ("Didn't you know that I must be here about the matters of My Father?".

They returned to Nazereth in Galilee and it wasn't until 28 years later that He began to publicly show His consciousness as to who he was. This was at his baptism at the Jordan River by John, when the voice came, to him, to John, and to the people privileged to be around, "This is my Son, the Beloved, Listen (Shma'a) to Him!" Here and now, against even the desire of John the Baptizer, Jesus, knowing that sin was not in him, chose to identify with sinful mankind in this baptism of John for repentance of sin, knowing that at the end of his time on earth, he would then be giving this sinless life of his on the cross, bearing the sins of the world upon himself.
[[Image:Carpaccio Christus in Emmaus.jpg|thumb|Christus in Emmaus by [[Vittore Carpaccio]]]]
Back, now, in Galilee, he would begin to do works of mercy, miracles of compassion, healings of deliverance, and overthrowing the devastations of Satan upon the people of God's compassion - in short, bringing in the Kingdom of Heaven and of God and supplanting the Kingdom of Darkness. He began to gather around him his followers, simple fishing folk and others, spending most of his time in the area around the north shore of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). among the Jews of this Jewish area. He was bringing in the Messianic Kingdom to those who would understand it best, the Jews. But all the time, there was burning within him the knowledge that the blessings of Abraham would be extended, according to the promise, to all the peoples of the earth, the Gentiles, and there would be a new Kingdom, a new nation, transcending both Jews and Gentiles, the Kingdom of the people of God the Heavenly Father. He began his forays then into gentile areas, Phoenecia, the Decapolis, and other locales, and finding faith there such as he had not found "even in Israel".

A crossroads occurred, then, in the choice of Jesus, and consequently in the options of his disciples. It occurred in the Tetrarchy of Philip, at the foothills of Mt. Hermon, at the town of Caesarea Philipi. He knowing who he was, would force the question upon others - "Who do people say Me to be?". From the lips of Shim'on, whom he would call Peter, as leader of the others, He would hear - "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!" It was enough. Jesus would then begin imparting to them what the nature of His mission to be - not to expel the Romans from the Holy Land, but to go to Jerusalem, to be betrayed, to be spurned and rejected by the High Priests and the Elders of the People, to be hung on a Roman cross at the hands of the Gentiles, to die. Casesarea Philipi was in between, on one hand, Gentile pervaded Roman Tiberius to the southwest of the Sea, and on the other hand, anti-Roman nationalistic and zealotic Gamla to the north east of the Sea. (This latter would end their rebellion against Rome by suicide on Matzada in 73 A.D). Those two polarities were present in the minds of the disciples and Jesus began, on one hand, to divest from their minds the one, the warrior role of the Messiah against the Romans, and the other, to renew their thinking and their commitment to Him as the self sacrificing Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace and the true Messiah of Israel, on the other hand.

This took place on the long 3 or 4 day journey by foot from Galilee to Jerusalem, along the [[Jordan River]] valley, coming to Jericho, ascending to Jerusalem from the east. It was in Jerusalem that he prepared and settled the matter for the perpetuation of the Church at the Lord's last supper of the Passover, to be made palpable later by the descent of the Holy Spirit. It was in Jerusalem, in the Garden of the Oil Press, that what He had been lead to believe about his mission and the meaning and manner of his death was fully embraced and accepted with no reservation or turning back. "Your will be done, Father, if there is no other way", and "There is no other way, Your will be done Father!" It was a perfect decision and commitment, perfecting his life to be a perfect sacrifice. And it was to the west just outside Jerusalem that His teachings came to a concretization and realization on the cross. And just outside of Jerusalem that His Father would vindicate him by raising him from the dead.

"No man takes my life from me. I have power to take it and I have power to lay it down... I lay down my life for the sheep." <ref>Bible, Gospel of John, 10:18,15 http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=KjvJohn.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=10&division=div1</ref>

"Though He was in the form of God, He did not think equality with God something to grasp onto. But He emptied Himself and took to Himself the form of a servant and was made man, And being found in the form of a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. For this reason, God has exalted Him..."<ref>Bible, Philippians 2:6-9a, http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=KjvPhil.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=2&division=div1 </ref>

==Jesus and the Holy Spirit==
The Holy Spirit was sometimes referred to as the Spirit of Jesus. This was to point out the special relationship that Jesus had to the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, rather than having been sired by Joseph. He was filled by the Holy Spirit from the time of His baptism at the Jordon river at the hands of his cousin John, and He was led by the Holy Spirit, not only into the desert to be tempted by the devil, but also all His life on earth. His empowerment to do "works" and miracles came through the Holy Spirit given Him, as the Holy Spirit would afterwards be given to all his followers, and not solely by virtue His being the Son of God. But, beyond this, there was a more special and unique relationship that Jesus had to the Holy Spirit. He taught, and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of Paul would later echo, that the Holy Spirit would be given and poured out, to His followers through Jesus ascended to the Presence of the Father, and that, in some way, perhaps mysterious but concrete, Jesus Himself, would be with them once again, in and through the presence of the Holy Spirit which they would receive. He had gone back to the Father in order to return in a new and more complete way through the Holy Spirit. He would not leave them orphaned. This Holy Spirit, then, with Jesus and the Father, constituted the reality which would reverberate through the ages for all new believers being bought into the Church, the Body of Christ (for every body needs a spirit) - " In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit".

==Following Jesus, believing in Him==
It is sometimes said that there are two faiths in the New Testament. That of Jesus and that of Paul. Paul's religion is that of believing in Christ as Lord and Savior, and as the divine Son of God, and that of Jesus is of following Him in the sense of living and doing as He has taught. But in reality, there is only one faith and the two not in contradiction. For the Jesus of the Gospels, besides setting forth the life that He himself lived, as a pattern for all His followers, also said, "No one knows the Son, except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son choses to reveal Him", and "I and the Father are One", and "If you see Me, you see God". .And Paul, aside, from saying that "if you believe in the Lord Jesus you shall be saved", and "therefore, being justified by Faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ", also said "work out your salvation with fear and trembling", and "Owe no man anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law."

Mark 16:16 "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. And he who does not believe, shall be condemned", Jesus said. It is belief in Jesus which brings a person to the waters of baptism, and it is through the waters of baptism, that one enters into the fellowship of the Church, the people of God who are being brought, day be day, one with the other, to the life that Jesus taught about. And so his new belief and his being and living and doing are all unified under the direction of Christ and His under-shepherds. And if one will not believe, of course, then it goes without saying, he will not be baptized.

== Historical Analysis ==
=== Dating Jesus' Birth ===
Modern historians generally place the actual date of Jesus' birth between 7 and 4 B.C., due to problems reconciling the Roman and Jewish calendars with the [[Gregorian Calendar]] which is in use today throughout the industrialized world.

=== Historicity of Jesus ===
Occasionally, non-historians deny the [[historicity of Jesus]] (Having to do with the question of whether Jesus was in fact a real person who had a real life on earth), but few scholars take this seriously. [[Tacitus]], a Roman historian, wrote about Jesus in A.D. 115,<ref>http://www.digisys.net/users/ddalton/evidence_of_jesus_outside_the_bible.htm</ref> and [[Josephus]], a Jewish historian who did not believe in Jesus' divinity, wrote about him.<ref>http://www.christian-thinktank.com/jesusref.html</ref> Dr. [[Gary Habermas]] wrote an extensive analysis of the historicity of Jesus in his work ''The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ'', which discusses many historical sources that mention Jesus.

[[Lee Strobel]]'s book ''[[The Case for Christ]]'' contains a number of interviews with experts on the historical Jesus and a defense of Jesus's resurrection, and is a good resource on this subject.

== Jesus' Name ==
=== ''Jesus'' ===
The bible doesn't tell us much about the meaning of the name ''Jesus'', but does tell us who gave the name, when the name was given, and a reason the name was given. Luke 2:21 tells us that his name was given (1) "by the angel," (2) and it was given "before He was conceived in the womb." The reason for naming him Jesus seems to be given in Matthew 1:21, which says, "...you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

==== Hebrew Origin ====
The Greeks derived the name from the late Hebrew or Aramaic name Yoshua, today’s version of which is “Joshua”. The earlier Aramaic form was Jehoshua (Y’hoshua) or Joshua., deriving from Hebrew Yah, short for Yahweh, and Aramaic y’shuoh meaning “salvation”. The name thus meant “Jah is salvation”. Both Joshua and Jehoshua were common names in the time of Jesus.

=== ''Christ'' ===
Although it appears that "Jesus Christ" is composed of a first and last name, and indeed, the New Testament at times considers the names together as a first and second name, in origin, and through much of the New Testament, "Christ" is used as a title. It is the Greek translation for "Mashiach" (Hebrew), and Meshicha (Aramaic) - meaning "Anointed". Thus He was called, "Jesus, the Anointed One". Kings priests, and prophets were often anointed with oil to consecrate them for their task, and so was Jesus for His task by the descent of the Spirit when He was baptized by John. The Spirit descended on Him and dwelt within Him. This was in fulfillment of Isaiah 61 - "The Spirit of the LORD is upon me for He has anointed (Mashach) Me; He has sent Me to bring good news to the meek, to console the broken hearted, to call out Freedom to the captives, and to prisoners Release." When Jesus ascended into the presence of the Father, the Father sent the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, through the Son, upon the believers and they too, as their Master, were "anointed" for their living and their task.

Note: The change from a title to a name is much more authentic and understandable in Aramaic language than in English. There is no inner connection from "Jesus the Christ" to "Jesus Christ" in English but in Aramaic the connecting bridge is the vocative "O Christ" (O, Anointed One)! "O Christ" and "The Christ" is the same in Aramaic - Meshicha.

== Teachings of Jesus ==
Jesus' special method of teaching was very different from what we know as "class room" teaching, and different from "teaching from definition". Though His students sometimes sat around Him and listened, He often taught them through the actual every day events of life, by parable and much more - as they traveled, as they ate, as they met people. All of life was His text book. He took them from what they understood to what they ''were to understand'', and brought them to understanding of what He meant, by how they saw it enacted and displayed in His own life. His life was the commentary to what they heard from His lips. That is why, besides that He was the Savior of the World, the believers in Him need be followers as well - to learn of His ways by intimate association. They would remember the words of the Savior later on and understand even more once His Spirit would be given them. His Spirit would then be their Guide, just as Jesus had done for them when He was on earth.

The Teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ are found in the four [[Gospels]] and other holy documents.

[http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/sermons/mount/default.asp '''Sermon on the Mount'''] This is the greatest sermon Jesus ever preached. It contains the Lord's prayer, the beatitudes, the golden rule, and practical advice for Christian living.

'''The Lord's Prayer'''

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For Yours is the kingdom

and the power

and the glory forever.

[[Amen]].

See [[The Lord's Prayer]] for the Greek and the interlineal transliterated Aramaic and Hebrew versions.

'''The golden rule:'''

"Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you!"

'''Prayer To Receive Him Now '''

''"Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Thank you for coming to Earth and dying so that I could have eternal life. Please forgive all my sins. I am going to follow You with my life now. Please fill me with Your Holy Spirit and direct my steps. In Jesus' name, [[Amen]]."'' <ref> [http://www.jesus2020.com/jesus.html Prayer To Receive Him Now]</ref>

== Resources on becoming a Christian ==
[[File:Hoffman Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.jpg|thumbnail|170px||Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane by Heinrich Hofmann.]]

''see also:'' [[Resources on becoming a Christian]]

'''Below are some resources on becoming a [[Christian]]:'''

*[http://creation.com/good-news Good news of Christianity]

*[http://www.thewordfortoday.org/?page=C2000 Free audio Bible and Bible audio streaming]

*[http://www.gotquestions.org/repentance.html Repentance]

*[http://www.allaboutgod.com/ AllAboutGod.com]

*[[Video testimonies of Christians]]

'''Tips on choosing a Christian church:'''

*[http://www.allaboutreligion.org/choosing-a-christian-church-faq.htm Choosing a Christian Church]

'''Spiritual growth as a Christian:'''

*[http://www.navpress.com/product/9781576839324/The-Pursuit-of-Holiness-Jerry-Bridges The Pursuit of Holiness] by Jerry Bridges
*[http://www.navpress.com/product/9780891099413/The-Practice-of-Godliness-Jerry-Bridges The Practice of Godliness] by Jerry Bridges
*[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/529785.The_Complete_Book_of_Discipleship The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ]

== See also ==
*[[Andrew the Apostle]]
*[[Atonement]]
*[[Byzantine Empire]]
*[[Christianity]]
*[[Eucharist]]
*[[Gospel reading in the Church: the Turgama]]
*[[Lazarus (brother of Mary)]]
*[[Lazarus (Parable)]]
*[[Judaism]]
*[[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]
*[[Inspiration of Holy Scripture: An Eastern Christian and Jewish Perspective]]
*[[Passover Seder]]
*[[Essay: The Way of Salvation]]
*[[Essay: Christians and the Law of Moses]]
*[[Messiah]]
*[[Messianic Prophecies]]
*[[Essay: The Way of Salvation]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.lifeofchrist.com/life/lifescan/default.asp Summary of the Life of Jesus]
* [http://www.lifeofchrist.com/life/lifescan/teachings.asp Teachings of Jesus]
* [http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/sermons/ Sermons of Jesus Christ]
* [http://www.ccci.org/wij/ Who is Jesus? Is Jesus Christ God?]
* [http://www.bible-history.com/links.php?cat=19&sub=302&cat_name=Jesus&subcat_name=Background Jesus Background] Bible History on line.
* [http://www.lewissociety.org/ C. S. Lewis Society of California].
* [http://www.lewissociety.org/bodily.php The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, by William Lane Craig].
* [http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Historical_Problem.htm Christian Origins and the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resurrection of Jesus as a Historical Problem, by N. T. Wright].
* [http://www.lewissociety.org/resurrection.php Contemporary Scholarship and the Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, by William Lane Craig].
* [http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Justice_Jesus.htm Doing Justice to Jesus: A Response to J.D. Crossan: "What Victory? What God?", by N. T. Wright].
* [http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Historical_Jesus.htm The Historical Jesus and Christian Theology, by N. T. Wright].
* [http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=37 The Wright Quest for the Historical Jesus, by Ben Witherington, III].
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Mark Twain, the Ice Storm, and Jesus Christ]

[[Category:Jesus]]
[[Category:Christianity]]
[[Category:Christian History]]
[[Category:Biblical Persons]]
[[Category:Divine Beings]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Mark Twain

2013-03-16T17:18:38Z

BertSchlossberg: /* Books Online */

[[Image:Mark Twain.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Mark Twain]]
'''Samuel Langhorne Clemens''' (1835-1910), best known under the pen name '''Mark Twain''', was a great American writer and humorist. On his death, the ''New York Times'' wrote that "his personality and his humor have been an integral part of American life for so long that it has seemed almost impossible to realize an America without him.<ref>"His Countrymen's Tribute," The'' New York Times,'' April 22, 1910, p. 2</ref> Mark Twain was famous as both a writer and a performer, having toured many years as a comedic lecturer. His cynical witticisms earned him a reputation as one of America's foremost personalities.

==Publications==
Twain worked as an author most of his life. Most of his books are considered classics, and have been adapted for stage and screen. His most famous works are the short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and novels ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'', ''[[The Prince and the Pauper]]'', ''[[Life on the Mississippi]]'', ''[[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' and ''[[Pudd'nhead Wilson]]''.

==Quotations==
*"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the congress is in session."

*"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards."<ref>''Following the Equator'', chapter LXI</ref>

*"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

*"By this time you will have noticed that the human being's heaven has been thought out and constructed upon an absolutely definite plan; and that this plan is, that it shall contain, in labored detail, each and every imaginable thing that is repulsive to a man, and not a single thing he likes!" <ref>''Letters From the Earth'', Crest Books, 1963. p.20</ref>

*"I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any."<ref>[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/onstage/70bday.html Mark Twain's Seventieth Birthday Speech]</ref>

*"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." <ref>''Following the Equator'', chapter XXVIL</ref>

*"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." <ref>''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' Page Number Needed</ref>

Many quips attributed to Mark Twain are not his, due to what Ralph Keyes call the "the flypaper effect." The habit of unclaimed comments "sticking" to famous quotable figures. He quotes a librarian as saying "if it's humorous and cynical, it must be Mark Twain."<ref>Keyes, Ralph (1992), ''Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations,'' p 24.</ref> A famous disputed quote is "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." This has long been attributed to Twain. According to Keyes, quotation sleuths traced it to an unsigned editorial in the ''Hartford Courant'' and decided it was most likely by Charles Dudley Warner. However, there is evidence suggesting it may really be Twain's remark after all.<ref>Keyes p 194-5. Keyes also notes that the quotation, as printed in the ''Courant,'' actually opened with the words "A well known American writer once said," and that a 1923 memoir by a journalist who had known Twain mentioned never having seen in print Mark's saying about the weather</ref>.

==A "Hymn to Liberty"==
[[George Orwell]] said that "all that is best in [Twain]'s work centers about the Mississippi river and the wild mining towns of the West."<ref>Orwell, George (1943), "Mark Twain—The Licensed Jester;" ''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell,'' volume 2, pp. 325. Spelling brought into conformance with American usage.</ref> He specifically mentions ''Tom Sawyer,'' ''Huckleberry Finn,'' and ''Life on the Mississippi.''

Orwell, who later would write ''Nineteen Eighty-Four,'' was writing during the Second World War, when individual freedom in Europe and England were at a low point. Orwell says that these books are set in "the golden age of America, the period when the great plains were opened up, when wealth and opportunity seemed limitless, and human beings felt free, indeed ''were'' free, as they had never been before and may not be again for centuries." He considered the books "ragbag[s] of anecdotes, scenic descriptions and social history both serious and burlesque" but Orwell also felt that they had a central theme:
"This is how human beings behave when they are not frightened of the sack (being fired). Orwell says Twain did not ''mean'' to write "a hymn to liberty," but did so simply by reporting what he saw. He feels that Twain's colorful characters were able to develop their "strange and sometimes sinister individuality because of the lack of any outside pressure: If you disliked your job you simply hit your boss in the eye and moved further west.... The "log cabin to White House" myth was true while the free land lasted. In a way, it was for this that the Paris mob had stormed the Bastille, and when one reads Mark Twain, [[Bret Harte]], and [[Walt Whitman|Whitman]] it is hard to feel that their effort was wasted.<ref>ibid., p. 326</ref>

==Religion==

Mark Twain was a practicing Presbyterian, but a series of personal tragedies in his life, namely the deaths of his son, wife, and two of his daughters, would result in his later works being particularly anti-religious. His books ''Letters from the Earth'' and ''The Mysterious Stranger'', both of which Twain was afraid to publish during his lifetime, contained numerous attacks on [[Christianity]]. Some of his quotes on the subject are listed below.

*"Faith is believing something you know ain't so." [''Following the Equator'']

*"'In God We Trust.' I don't believe it would sound any better if it were true."

*"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

*"Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of."

*"There is no other life; life itself is only a vision and a dream for nothing exists but space and you. If there was an all-powerful God, he would have made all good, and no bad." [''Mark Twain in Eruption'']

*"Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness... It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light and leading by contrast"<ref>[http://my.auburnjournal.com/detail/104213.html?content_source=&category_id=32&search_filter=&user_id=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&event_ts_to=&list_type=most_viewed&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=2&sub_type=blogs&town_id= "Reflections on Religion"] Full text online</ref>

==The pen name "Mark Twain"==
Clemens began using the pen name "Mark Twain" in his early newspaper columns.

Some believe "Mark Twain" was a reference to a leadsman's call. The leadsman's job was to toss a weighted line overboard to measure the depth of the water. On a Mississippi steamboat, he would do this again and again, calling out the results to the pilot. The depth was measured in ''fathoms,'' where a fathom is six feet. "Twain" is an old-fashioned word for "second." "Mark" meant the depth was on the exact fathom mark, much like describing a time as "on the dot." So "mark twain" literally means "two fathoms."

Others believe that "Mark Twain" refers to a then common method of ordering whiskey. "Mark Twain" referred to a double shot of the cheapest whiskey in the bar. Twain's penchant for cheap whiskey and cheap cigars lends credence to this theory.

In ''Life on the Mississippi,'' Twain says that he worked for a captain who used to send "brief paragraphs of plain practical information about the river" to the New Orleans Picayune (the famous newspaper), signed "Mark Twain." According to Twain, this captain always added little reminiscences about things like islands that "disappeared in 1807, if I remember rightly," which were annoying and drew the scorn of other captains. Twain wrote a humorous parody, without thinking about the captain's feelings, and was printed in a newspaper:
:There was no malice in my rubbish; but it laughed at the captain. It laughed at a man to whom such a thing was new and strange and dreadful. He never printed another paragraph while he lived, and he never again signed "Mark Twain" to anything. At the time that the telegraph brought the news of his death, I was on the Pacific coast. I was a fresh new journalist, and needed a nom de guerre; so I confiscated the ancient mariner's discarded one.<ref>Twain, Mark (1863), ''Life on the Mississippi,'' Chapter 50</ref>

In this way he was able to tap into the popularity of an existing and well known name without having to establish his own reputation. There is no documentary evidence of Mark Twain ever having been a riverboat captain beyond his own claims in ''Life on the Mississippi''.

== Books Online ==

*[http://www.maidofheaven.com/joanofarc_mark_twain.asp Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc]

==External Links==
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Mark Twain, the Ice Storm, and Jesus Christ]

==References==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twain, Mark}}

[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:People who were Educated at Home]]

September 11, 2001 attacks

2013-03-16T17:14:43Z

BertSchlossberg: /* Sources */

[[Image:National Park Service 9-11 Statue of Liberty and WTC fire.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The view of the burning towers of the World Trade Center from Staten Island, New York City, September 11, 2001]]
[[File:Pentagon sept11.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The damage to the Pentagon, Washington D.C., September 11, 2001]]
The '''Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001''' occurred when [[al Qaeda]], [[Islam|Islamic extremists]] hijacked four transcontinental airliners and used them to strike targets in the [[United States]]; two aircraft destroyed the twin towers of the [[World Trade Center]] in [[New York City]]; the third crashed into a portion of the [[Pentagon]] in Washington, D.C.; and the fourth aircraft - in which the hijackers are believed to have targeted the White House or the Capitol Building - crashed into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers fought back to re-take control.

The sheer audacity of the attack and the heavy loss of life that resulted from it caused the U.S. government to declare a [[War on Terror]] with the determination to hunt down terrorists world-wide; within two months of September 11, [[Afghanistan]] was completely occupied by Coalition forces, driving the ruling Islamo-fascist [[Taliban]] from power and causing the head of al Qaeda and the man who personally approved the attacks - [[Osama bin Laden]] - to flee into hiding.

==The Hijacking==
All 19 hijackers boarded the planes on the morning of September 11, having carefully chosen flights whose routes would be transcontinental. Two planes flew out of Boston's Logan Airport, one flew from Washington's Dulles International Airport, and the fourth left an airport in Newark, New Jersey.

===New York City===
[[File:911rtrs 468x683.jpg|right|200px|thumb|United Airlines Flight 175 about to crash into the south tower of of the World Trade Center as the north tower burns from the crash of American Airlines Flight 11.]]
American Airlines Flight 11 left Logan Airport around 8 AM, carrying 11 crew and 81 passengers; its destination was Los Angeles, California. United Airlines Flight 175 left Logan a few minutes later, carrying 9 crew and 56 passengers, and also on a flight to Los Angeles. Both aircraft were the 767-200, manufactured by the Boeing Company.

At 8:25 AM Boston air traffic controllers heard a strange voice from Flight 11: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet, and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport." The plane then headed south toward New York City; at 8:46 AM the plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center between the 93 and 99th floors. Sixteen minutes later, at 9:03 AM, Flight 175 crashed into the south tower - at a greater speed and more oblique angle - between the 77th and 85th floors.

The impact of the crashes took out any hope of getting to victims and survivors on the affected floors and the floors above; many people desperate to get away from the smoke and fire jumped. Both towers were designed to survive the impact of a 1960s-era jet, but the Boeing 767 was larger and carried more fuel; it was determined later that the heat from the burning fuel weakened the central steel structure and supports. At 9:59 am the south tower collasped; the upper floors had lost support in the damaged area and fell - pancake style - to the ground. At 10:29 AM the north tower fell in a similar manner. The death toll was around 2,750, including more than 300 firefighters and 100 police officers and other rescue workers.

The building at 7 World Trade Center, commonly abbreviated as WTC7, also collapsed in the attacks. This collapse is frequently cited in various [[9/11 conspiracy theories|conspiracy theories]].

===Washington, D.C.===
American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-200, left Dulles at 8:20 AM, carrying 6 crew and 58 passengers on a flight to Los Angeles. Forty minutes later the aircraft had turned back toward Washington; at 9:37 it crashed at high-speed into the west side of the Pentagon, killing a total of 184 people. Despite being built of reinforced concrete, the aircraft was able to penetrate to the third concentric ring of the building.

===Shanksville, Pennsylvania===
[[File:ShanksvilleSept11.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Val McClatchey snapped this photo moments after Flight 93 hit the ground near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.]]
United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-200, left Newark at 8:40 AM, with a destination of San Francisco. Unlike the other planes which had four hijackers each, Flight 93 had three; it also had passengers who, through onboard phone calls, learned of the previous hijackings and crashes and determined to wrest control of the aircraft back from the terrorists. Turned towards Washington, the plane ended up crashing in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM, the only one of the aircraft which failed to reach its target. Among the recorded conversations between the passengers and phone operators was the phrase "Let's roll" by Todd Beamer, made just before he set down his phone and took action with the other passengers involved; Beamer's last phrase would become a rallying cry in the coming war on terrorism.

===Ground Casualties===
The total loss of life is constantly being reevaluated to account for wrongly reported missing persons and, in some cases, occurrences of fraud. Estimates of more than 6,000 deaths were announced following the attacks. The current estimate is 2,996 fatalities as a direct result of the attacks. About 500 foreign nationals from over 90 countries are believed to have died in the attack.<ref> [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/10/29/wtc.deaths/ "New York Reduces 9/11 Death Toll by 40"] at CNN.com, Phil Hirschkorn, 10/29/03</ref>

The Department of Defense reported the deaths of 125 people at The Pentagon. The aftermath of the World Trade Center towers collapsing created a good deal of confusion and has been the main source of discrepancies in casualty estimates. As of October 29, 2003, New York City reported 2605 deaths in the attacks, not counting the passengers and crew of the planes. <ref> [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/10/29/wtc.deaths/ "New York Reduces 9/11 Death Toll by 40"] at CNN.com, Phil Hirschkorn, 10/29/03</ref>

As a matter of course, the deaths of the 19 [[suicide|hijackers]] are not included in these casualty totals.

===Economic Impact===
The material costs of the attacks are well in excess of one hundred billion US dollars. Factoring in stock market losses, loss of revenue in New York City, loss of jobs, impact on air travel, and heightened security, some estimate the cost approaches two trillion dollars.<ref>[http://www.iags.org/costof911.html The Cost of September 11] Institute for the Analysis of Global Security</ref>

Some estimates of the cost of executing the plan place it in the $400,000-$500,000 range, making it an extremely "profitable" operation for al-Qaeda. <ref>[http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Exec.htm The 9/11 Commission Report]</ref>

==The Suspects==
Suspicion fell on Osama bin Laden and his [[Islam|Islamic extremist]] al-Qaeda organization almost immediately. Known to have harbored hatred for the United States since the basing of U.S. fighters and other military personnel in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, bin Laden has tried "To kill Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it," <ref>[http://awildernessvoice.com/Mohammed.html]</ref>, and often succeeding. In four previous attacks, bin Laden's operatives
*killed 6 in a bomb explosion in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993;
*killed 19 soldiers in 1996 at a military housing complex in Saudi Arabia;
*killed more than 200 people in the simultaneous bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania;
*killed 17 sailors by putting an explosives-laden boat next to USS ''Cole'' while that destroyer was refueling in Yemen in 2000.

His personal fortune, estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, has enabled him to finance well-coordinated operations, including the training of the hijackers in close-quarter fighting, commandeering of aircraft, and ironically to bankroll their education in American flight schools.

==Social Impacts==

Following the attacks there was a strong surge of patriotism in virtually all facets of American society. The government, being aware that the most deadly attack ever on American soil could stir up animosity against the ethnic or religious group of the perpetrators, went out of its way along with the media to separate Islam from the actions taken by its more radical adherents, referring to it at multiple times as a "religion of love". While people of Middle Eastern decent and adherents of Islam were concerned at first, the overall effect of hostility towards these groups was barely noticeable. Although there were literally millions of Muslims in America out of a total population of 300 million who could have sought out reprisals, in an entire year less than 500 cases of aggression of verbal hostility were reported. Muslims responded to the magnanimous treatment they received from Americans by seeking to construct an insulting and offensive [[Ground Zero Mosque]].

==Consequences of the Attacks on U.S. Policy==
===Domestic Policy===

The attacks were a direct or indirect cause of massive changes in United States domestic policy. Most notably, the ''Homeland Security Act of 2002'' "established a [[Department of Homeland Security]], as an executive department of the United States" <ref>[http://www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/bill/hsl-bill.pdf H.R. 5005 The Homeland Security Act]</ref>, a cabinet level position. One of the tools implemented by the Department is the [[Homeland Security Advisory System]], a color coded advisory system meant to "establish a comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to Federal, State, and local authorities and to the American people." <ref>[http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/laws/ DHS Laws and Regulations] Department of Homeland Security</ref>

Another notable result of the attacks was the ''[[USA PATRIOT Act|USA PATRIOT Act of 2001]]'' ('''U'''niting and '''S'''trengthening '''A'''merica by '''P'''roviding '''A'''ppropriate '''T'''ools '''R'''equired to '''I'''ntercept and '''O'''bstruct '''T'''errorism). The act was written to expand the authority of law enforcement and the justice system in the pursuit of terrorism suspects.<ref>[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.R.3162.ENR: ''The USA PATRIOT Act''] Library of Congress</ref>

===Foreign Policy===

In response to the attacks, the United States declared a [[War on Terror]], which comprises United States military action in [[Afghanistan]] and [[Iraq]] as well as a significant increase in intelligence gathering and a new outlook on foreign relations.

==Conspiracy Theories==

''Main article: [[9/11 conspiracy theories]]''

[[Image:393px-WTC-remnant highres.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Remains of the South Tower, September 13, 2001.]]
Many conspiracy theories have sprouted up from the events of September 11, 2001, including the "Loose Change" movies seen on YouTube.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061002/alterman Lying About 9/11? Easy as [[ABC]]], Eric Alterman, ''The Nation'', September 14, 2006 (October 2, 2006 issue).</ref> These movies have been comprehensively disproven by independent experts.<ref>[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html "Debunking The 9/11 Myths"] ''Popular Mechanics'', Mar. 2005 Cover Story</ref> Prominent endorsers of such theories include talk show host [[Rosie O'Donnell]] as well as actor [[Charlie Sheen]]. A third of the American public has bought into the idea of some sort of role by federal officials.<ref>[http://www.scrippsnews.com/911poll Third of Americans Suspect 9-11 Government Conspiracy] ''Scrippsnews'', Hargrove, Thomas, 8/01/06</ref> This view is much more common among those who get their news solely from the internet and is rare for those who read newspapers or watch the news on regular television. {{fact}}

==See Also==
*[[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]

==Sources==
*[http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf The 9/11 Commission Report]
*[http://wtc.nist.gov/NISTNCSTAR1CollapseofTowers.pdf Final Report on the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers], [[National Institute of Standards and Technology|NIST]].
*[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/index.html September 11: Chronology of Terror] at CNN.com
*[http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/penttbom/penttbomb.htm Federal Bureau of Investigations PENTTBOM Press Release]
*[http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/main.html Lists of Victims] at CNN.com

==External Links==
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Two Flags, One God, and no escape]

==Additional Information==
*[http://www.archive.org/details/sept_11_tv_archive The Internet Archive's file of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, and BBC broadcasts for Sept 11-13, 2001]
*[http://www.televisionarchive.org/ Television Archive of news broadcasts for 9/11]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Terrorism}}
[[category:United States History]]
[[Category:Riots and terrorist incidents in the United States]]
[[Category:Afghanistan War]]

The Gospels

2013-03-16T17:11:05Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External Links */

The Four '''Gospels''' of the [[Bible]] (from the Greek for "good news") are the first four books of the [[New Testament]]. Two of the gospel accounts of [[Jesus]] are attributed to eyewitness accounts of two of His [[Apostles]] ([[Matthew ]] and [[Gospel of John|John]]) and two gospel accounts are attributed to disciples who did not know Jesus personally ([[Gospel of Mark|Mark]] and [[Luke]]). There was no ambiguity among the early [[church fathers]] as to the [[authorship]] of the gospels, with their earliest writings attesting to our current titles. For additional information on each Gospel, see their individual entries.

The Gospels were originally written in [[Greek language|Greek]], the common lingua franca (common or commercial language among diverse peoples) of the Roman Orient. No original Gospels have been found in [[Aramaic]]; the only known Aramaic Gospels are translations from Greek versions. The general consensus is that the Gospel according to Matthew was written particularly for [[Jews]]; the Gospel according to Mark was written particularly for [[Roman]]s; the Gospel according to Luke was written particularly for [[Greeks]]; and the Gospel according to John was written for everyone.

==Etymology==
"Gospel" is derived from the Middle English word "godspel," in which "god" means "good" and "spel" means "news." Thus "Gospel" literally means "good news," and some denominations like to use the phrase "good news" because they feel it conveys the nature of the Gospel clearly. It is a translation of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion), which is also the root of the word "evangelist;" an evangelist is someone who spreads the good news. The "good news" here is, specifically, the news of Christ's redemption. The four Gospels offer different, yet complementary, accounts of the story of Jesus's life and teachings, and lay the foundation for the doctrine of Christ's redemption.

==The relationship of the Gospels==
[[Image:Gospel Leaf.jpg|thumb|Gospel Leaf, [[Ethiopia]].]]
Although [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] comes first in Biblical order, the Gospel of [[Gospel of Mark|Mark]] is widely agreed to be the oldest of the Gospels. Matthew and [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] were probably compiled slightly later, drawing both from Mark, eyewitness accounts, and oral testimony. It is also possible that Matthew or Luke used the other as a source as well, although which one would have come first is unknown. [[Gospel of John|John]] is the last of the Gospels, the most theologically mature, and the strongest in its emphasis on God's loving sacrifice of his only son, Jesus, and the ways in which this sacrifice redeemed all mankind. The first three canonical Gospels are often called the "synoptic" (''sighted with'' another) Gospels, as they tell slightly different versions of the same underlying story of Christ's life and ministry on earth.

Luke was said to have been a Greek physician (see Col 4:14) who accompanied [[Paul]] and also wrote the [[Acts (of the Apostles)|Acts of the Apostles]] describing the arrival of the [[Holy Spirit]]. Unlike the Gospels of Matthew and John, written as firsthand accounts, the Gospel of Luke records eyewitness accounts of others, much as a doctor asks a patient for his medical history and then writes it down in the medical file. Due to Luke's professional nature, his Gospel is very comprehensive about Jesus' life and [[resurrection]], and it also conveys the great sense of [[joy]] that Jesus' family, friends and followers felt.

==Non-canonical Gospels==
In addition to the four Canonical gospels, other texts claiming to record the accounts of Jesus's earthly ministry have survived in part or in whole. Most notable among these is the [[Gospel of Thomas]], which contains additional sayings and teachings. Recently, a [[Gospel of Judas]] surfaced, but this text is decidedly a later one, and its claim for any original authority is very slim. These Gospels are considered apocryphal by modern Christianity, and therefore not authoritative texts.

A number of other "gospels" were written sometime between the second to the four centuries, most well after the dates when the disciples lived. They include: the Gospel of the Ebionites, Gospel of the Hebrews, Gospel of Marcion, Gospel of Mary, Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Thomas, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and the Infancy Gospel of James. <ref>Donald Harman Akenson, Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds, 216.</ref>

Among fragments that still survive are the gospels according to the Hebrews (much prized by the early Jewish Church), according to the Egyptians, of the Ebionites, of Philip, of Matthias, of Peter, of Thomas (almost complete), of Nicodemus, of Bartholomew, of Pseudo-Melito, of Joseph of Arimathaea, of James, of Pseudo-Matthew, of Barnabas and a whole collection of infancy gospels <ref>James. M.R, The Apocryphal New Testament (Clarendon, Oxford, 1924)</ref>.

== Teachings of Jesus ==
[[Image:Fishes.jpg|right]]
The Teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ are found in the four Gospels and other holy documents. [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/newtestament.html The New Testament] Early Christian Writings.

*[[Gospel of Matthew]] - [http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=40 Book of Matthew] Catholic version.
*[[Gospel of Mark]] - [http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=41 Book of Mark] Catholic version.
*[[Gospel of Luke]] - [http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=42 Book of Luke] Catholic version.
*[[Gospel of John]] - [http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=43 Book of John] Catholic version.

*[http://www.ebible.org/bible/kjv/ King James Version of the The Holy Bible]
*[http://ebible.org/bible/asv/ The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible]

*[http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/sermons/mount/default.asp '''Sermon on the Mount''']
*[http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/sermons/default.asp Sermons of Jesus Christ]
*[http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/parables/ Parables of Jesus Christ]
*[http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/topics/BlasphemyAgainstTheHolySpirit/ Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit]

== See also ==

* [[The Twelve Apostles]]
* [[Symbols of the Holy Spirit]]
* [[Fruits of the Holy Spirit]]
* [[Aramaic Judaism, Jewish Aramaic Christianity, and John 1:1]]
* [[Essay: The superiority of the King James Bible: Looking through!]]
* [[Jewish Biblical way of interpretation: a solution for New Testament understanding]]
* [[First Century Aramaic Jewish Christian Gospel and poetry]]

== External Links ==

*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Timelines/Israel/Fausset/Gospels.htm Introduction to the Gospels From Fausset's Bible Dictionary]
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Bible/NT/LouisBerkhof/The%20Gospels%20in%20General.htm Introduction to the Gospels From New Testament Introduction by Louis Berkhof]
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Bible/NT/LouisBerkhof/The%20Gospels%20in%20General.htm Introduction to the Gospels From New Testament Introduction by Louis Berkhof]
*[http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/scofield-reference-notes/the-gospels.html The Gospels] on BibleStudyTools.com
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/E-Books/harmony/hotgindex.htm A Harmony of the Gospels]
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Timelines/TLOJ_All.htm The Life of Jesus Showing Coverage by All 4 Gospels]
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Timelines/TLOJ_Mk.htm The Life of Jesus Showing Coverage by Matthew]
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Timelines/TLOJ_Mk.htm The Life of Jesus Showing Coverage by Mark]
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Timelines/TLOJ_Lk.htm The Life of Jesus Showing Coverage by Luke]
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Timelines/TLOJ_Jn.htm The Life of Jesus Showing Coverage by John]
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Timelines/10%20BC-110%20AD.htm New Testament Time-line]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/jesus-through-fabric-of-our-lives.html Jesus through the Fabric of our Lives]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Who can be saved? Who can not be saved?]

==References==

<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gospels, The}}

[[Category:Biblical Books]]
[[Category:Christianity]]

Cyber-terrorism

2013-03-16T16:23:15Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

'''Cyber-terrorism''' is an assault on electronic communication networks. This can result in great [[economic]] loss, disrupted energy supply, and even large scale death. Because of countries reliance on [[computers]] today, cyber-terrorism has emerged as a huge threat which can cause more damage than traditional [[terrorism]]<ref>[http://www.crime-research.org/news/14.04.2004/208/ Crime Research] Accessed July 18 2007</ref>.

==Cyber-Attacks on Estonia==

In May of 2007, [[Russia]] was accused of conducting a three week cyber-terrorism attack on the small [[Baltic]] country of [[Estonia]]. The terror attacks came as the two countries were embroiled in their worst dispute since the end of the [[Cold War]]. The dispute was over Estonia removing a statue to honor the oppressive, murderous [[Red Army]] in their capital [[Tallinn]]. In response to this, Russia began a campaign of cyber-attacks which disabled government websites; including [[military]] websites, newspapers, companies, banks and other parts of the Estonian cyber-infrastructure.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/17/westonia117.xml Daily Telegraph] Accessed July 18 2007</ref> Although there has not been solid evidence, Estonian officials traced IP addresses to computers in Russian government offices, including one in President [[Vladimir Putin]]'s office, and believe that some of the attacks may have been done through hijacked computers<ref>''Cyberterrorism has become a reality'' [http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/277054/cyberterrorism_has_become_a_reality.html Associated Content] Accessed July 18 2007</ref>. Evidence also suggests that the cyber-attacks may have also been carried out by ordinary people equipped with instructions from Russian websites<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/18/westonia18.xml Daily Telegraph] Accessed July 18 2007</ref>. The attacks on Estonia urged the country to call on organizations like [[NATO]], and the [[EU]], to develop responses to this new 21st century national security threat.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/18/westonia18.xml Daily Telegraph] Accessed July 18 2007</ref>

== Also See ==
* [[Internet Crime]]
==External links==
*[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_page_id=1965&in_article_id=457504 Attack of the cyber terrorists] [[Daily Mail]] May 24 2007
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Purim, Haddasah Hospital in Jerusalem, and Iran's Nuclear Bomb]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category: Terrorism]]

Abraham Lincoln

2013-03-16T16:18:19Z

BertSchlossberg: /* Links */

{{Officeholder
|name=Abraham Lincoln
|image=Ncoln2.jpg
|party=[[Republican]] [[National Union]]
|spouse=[[Mary Todd Lincoln]]
|religion=[[Christian]]
|offices=
{{Officeholder/president
|country=the United States
|number=16th
|terms=March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865
|vp=[[Hannibal Hamlin]] (1861–1865) [[Andrew Johnson]] (1865)
|preceded=[[James Buchanan]]
|former=y
|succeeded=[[Andrew Johnson]]
}}
{{Officeholder/representative
|state=Illinois
|district=7th
|terms=March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849
|preceded=John Henry
|former=y
|succeeded=Thomas L. Harris
}}
|military=y
|allegiance=Illinois Militia
|serviceyears=1832
|battles=Black Hawk War
}}
'''Abraham Lincoln''' was the 16th [[President of the United States of America]] serving from 1861 to 1865. He led his country through its greatest crisis, the [[American Civil War]], abolished [[slavery]] and built a [[Republican Party]] coalition that dominated the [[Third Party System]].

Lincoln, along with George Washington, is the chief icon of conservative American values. With a profound sense of American history, unswerving commitment to [[Republicanism|republican ideals]] of democracy and civic virtue, and an almost Shakespearean command of the language, Lincoln articulated a vision of a new birth of freedom for the American nation. The destruction of the [[Confederacy]], and of the [[Slave Power|slave power]] that menaced conservative American values, affirmed Lincoln's vision in the [[Gettysburg Address]] (1863) and guaranteed that "government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

He was [[homeschooled]] and almost completely self-taught, which likely gave him independent thinking, reliance on logic, and a desire to continue to learn as an adult.<ref>For example, Lincoln successfully proved all of Euclid's theorems while serving in Congress.</ref> He is considered the most eloquent writer of any American president in history thus far. He is also one of the very few whose [[faith]] developed and grew while holding high public office.

==Early life==
Lincoln grew up in a hard-luck, hard-scrabble environment on
the middle border. His paternal ancestors were English; they migrated from Hingham, England, to Hingham Massachusetts, in 1637. In the 1730s they moved to backwoods Pennsylvania and Virginia. His grandfather moved to Kentucky in 1782, where he was scalped by Indians raiding his farm in 1786. His father Thomas owned some farmland near Elizabethtown, where he farmed and worked as a carpenter.

Abe later wrote:
:''“I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families-- second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others in Macon Counties, Illinois.”''<ref> See [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htm Speeches]</ref>

Abe was born in a backwoods cabin some three miles south of Hodgenville, Kentucky. His father Thomas Lincoln was a sturdy man, committed to pioneering in the new lands of Kentucky and Indiana. He married Nancy Hanks on June 12, 1806, and together they had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who did not survive infancy. The family belonged to a Hardshell Baptist church; Abe ridiculed the preachers and never joined their church, or any other church.

Young Abraham’s earliest memories of his days in Kentucky involved helping his father plant some seeds of corn and sunflower, and a flood that washed them away.
[[Image:Young abraham lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The oldest-known photograph of Lincoln, about 1847.]]
In December 1816 Thomas had to pack up his family and leave for southwestern Indiana after a slaveowner with a better lawyer won title to his Kentucky property.

Penniless, the family in Indiana lived in a “half-faced” camp; a crude log structure with one side open to the elements, and there the family stayed as squatters on public land until Thomas had finished a permanent cabin; he later bought the land outright on which it stood. Helping Thomas clear the land and plowing the fields was Abe, who in sharp contrast to other boys developed a strong aversion to hunting. The poverty, Lincoln recalled, was “pretty pinching” at times, and by the age of nine he was a tall, lanky boy dressed rather ragged and unkempt.

Then the fall of 1818 brought the hardest blow: Nancy had died of the “milk sickness”, leaving Abraham without the mother whom he deeply loved. Some time later, Thomas had taken the buckboard and the mule, and left Abraham and Sarah on their own for two weeks; when he returned, he was with a new wife, Sarah Bush Johnson; she immediately made up for the absence of Nancy by replacing Abraham’s corn husk mattress with one of down, winning him over the first day. The new step-mother treated both children with an even hand (she herself was a widow with three children, whom she had brought), but she became very fond of Abraham, and he in turn was fond of her, referring to her as his “angel mother” for the rest of his life.

===Education===
Both of Abraham’s parents were nearly completely illiterate, and he himself had not much more than one year of formal education. When he did go to school, it was by “littles” – a little here, a little there – and he would call it “blab” school, which meant that they had to recite their lessons constantly due to lack of paper, pencils, and chalk. “Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three; but that was all.” The rule of three means up to one thousand.

His step-mother encouraged his reading as much as possible, and although Abraham did not have access to a large number of books, he would read as much of what was there, and read voraciously. He read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, ''Aesop’s Fables'', Daniel DeFoe’s ''Robinson Crusoe'', Parson Weems's ''Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington'', Edward Gibbon’s ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', and undoubtedly he read many times the only book his family actually owned, the Bible. He would walk for miles to borrow a book he heard about, and after his chores he would collapse into a heap in front of the fire and read for hours. He would say years later that his best friend was the man who let him borrow a book he hadn’t read yet.

===The Rail-Splitter===
[[Image:Railsplitter.jpg|thumb|200px|right|An artist's impression of a young Abe Lincoln, the ''Rail-Splitter''.]]
The Lincolns moved to Illinois in March, 1830, with Abraham driving the team of oxen himself, a young man of 21, rawboned and lanky at six feet four inches tall. But the years working on the Indiana farm also made him physically powerful, and on his arrival in Illinois he was soon to demonstrate the skill with which he could wield an axe, putting it to good use by clearing the trees and laying the fence on his father’s new farm; the speed with which he could take tree trunks and split them into the rails needed for the fencing just by using his axe earned him the nickname “rail-splitter.” He could make an axe flash and bite deep; one neighbor saying “He could sink an axe deeper into wood than any man I ever saw.” After a good deal of chopping, he could take the axe by its handle and hold it straight out away from his body, without a single quiver. (Sandburg, pg. 14) Good-natured as well, he would make friends easily, despite his awkward-looking stride and backwoods language.
[[Image:Lincoln hair.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Fearing that his friends wouldn't recognize him "without a bad tousle", Lincoln messed his hair up in this picture before the photographer closed the shutter.]]
Soon, he signed on as a deckhand on a flatboat, and made a voyage down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. When he returned he settled in a small town on the Sangamon River called New Salem, working as a store keeper, surveyor, or a postmaster, the later of which allowed him to be the first to read the arriving newspapers. Then talk went about town of Lincoln’s utter honesty, how he would walk six miles to return a few cents to a customer he had accidentally overcharged, or the woman that had bought some tea, and having used the wrong weight for the purchase, Lincoln made the correction and walked the many miles to her house to ensure she got the right order (Sandburg, pp 24-25).

In 1832 he enlisted in the Black Hawk War, and was elected captain of his company, but the only fighting he admitted seeing action in was the “many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes.” After he was mustered out of his company, he aspired for the state legislature, losing the contest the first time he ran, then getting elected and re-elected several times afterward. He had briefly thought about practicing the trade of blacksmithing, but his craving of reading led him to law books, which caused some serious studying. Lincoln passed the bar in 1836, and began a new career practicing law.

===Insulting letters===

In the early 1840s, Lincoln had a habit of writing critical letters that skewered his political opponents unmercifully. In 1842, after the default of the state bank, Lincoln wrote a letter to the editor of the ''Sangamo Journal'' about Illinois' governor, treasurer and auditor's refusal to accept the state's own paper money for payment of debts. The letter directly attacked James Shields, the state auditor, who then challenged Lincoln to a duel. After taking lessons in swordsmanship, Lincoln met Shields on September 22, 1842 on a Missouri sandbar. Two mutual friends rushed to the scene and talked the two combatants into cancelling the duel.<ref>[http://www.historynet.com/abraham-lincoln-prepares-to-fight-a-saber-duel.htm Abraham Lincoln prepares to fight a saber duel]</ref>

==Springfield==
The following year he moved to the new state capital of Illinois, Springfield, becoming law partners with John T. Stuart, Stephan T. Logan, and finally William H. Herndon in 1844, who, although junior in age to Lincoln by a decade, made a good, balanced partner. Few records exist of their law business, and when they got paid for their services they split the cash, no matter who was paid. Lincoln would earn $1,200 - $1,500 annually within just a few years; by comparison circuit judges earned $750. But to earn it he kept busy and worked hard; often he would climb into his buggy and travel the circuit of neighboring counties and practice before the courts there. And often the cases he would be involved in were petty

Years before he had tried, and failed, to push legislation through the state assembly to have the Sangamon River made navigable to New Salem; by 1850 the railroads were bringing business and prosperity to Illinois, and Lincoln, by virtue of the ease the railroad made in traveling to his courts, profited more. He had served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad, enabling it to get a state charter; he would defend the company against McClean County’s unsuccessful efforts to tax it. He handles cases for other railroads, banks, manufacturing, and other large companies in the state; he handled some patent suits and a few criminal trials. And he also saved the first bridge to cross the Mississippi River from demolition, when river interests demanded the bridge be taken down.

===The moonlight murder===
In Lincoln’s New Salem days he was introduced to the Clary’s Grove Boys, a group of rowdy men from a nearby town who came into New Salem to bully some of the townsmen. The leader of the group was Jack Armstrong, whose challenge to wrestle the New Salem men usually resulted in Armstrong quickly throwing the unfortunate man to the ground. When he saw Lincoln, Armstrong dismissed the lanky young man as a pushover. When they fought, neither man was able to throw the other. The battle ended in a draw, and the good-natured Lincoln made a new friend. Armstrong would later be one of the men to elect Lincoln to lead the company of volunteers in the Black Hawk War.<ref>[http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=32&subjectID=2 Jack Armstrong]</ref>

In 1856, Jack Armstrong’s son, William (or "Duff"), was charged with murder. A witness claimed he had seen Duff and another kill a New Salem man late at night by the light of full moon. Lincoln pulled out an almanac and proved that the witness could not have seen anything at all, as the moon was at its quarter and had actually set over an hour before. Duff was acquitted, and Lincoln won the case.<ref>[http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=32&subjectID=2 Jack Armstrong]</ref>

==Politics==
[[Andrew Jackson]], the hero of New Orleans in the [[War of 1812]] and a Democrat from Tennessee, was in the White House when Lincoln first entered politics. He shared with Jackson the sympathies for the common man, but differed in the role of government as related to it; Jackson stated the government should be separated from the economic enterprise, while Lincoln was of the view that “the legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities.” Lincoln most associated himself with the Whig Party, as among their members Henry Clay and Daniel Webster both advocated a government should be encouraging business, and the development of the country to that end. It was an easy choice for Lincoln: he saw Illinois as needing such aid to improve the development of its own economy.

In the Illinois State Legislature Lincoln found that politics could be detrimental and harsh, as well as rewarding. An example of the former occurred in 1836, just as he gave a speech in support of his re-election. Democrat John Forquer, also seeking election, used his response and acid tounge to denounce him. "This young man needs to be taken down" he said, pointing to Lincoln, "and I'm afraid the task devolves upon me." The success of Forquer's speech convinced some of Lincoln's own allies that his career was over.

But when Lincoln rose to make his rebuttal, he thought of Forquer, and what he had done recently in conniving with President Jackson to change parties; in reward for doing so he was made Government Land Register with a $3,000 annual salary. Forquer was then able to construct a fine new house in Springfield, complete with a curiosity residents had heard about from science but had never seen before: a lightning rod. Before he entered the state house building that day, Lincoln spent a few minutes at Forquer's house staring at the thing, and having heard Forquer's speech later on, he thought of what he saw. Lincoln's reply was blistering, and sealed Forquer's fate.

:''"Among other things he said, the gentleman commenced his speech by saying that 'this young man,' alluding to me, 'must be taken down.' I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks and the trades of a politician, but, live long or die young, I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, change my politics, and with the change receive an office worth $3,000 a year, and then feel obliged to erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God!"'' (Sandburg, pg.49)

Lincoln also proposed state funding to construct a network of roads, railroads, and canals. Both Whigs and Democrats would join in for the passing of this omnibus bill, but a business depression was created by the [[panic of 1837]], and as a result most of the provisions in the bill were abandoned. 1837 was also marked by the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, a newspaperman from Alton who was killed by a mob due to his anti-slavery views. The legislature introduced resolutions defending Southern slavery while condemning abolitionist societies, as per the U.S. Constitution. In protest of the resolutions Lincoln, with a fellow legislator, drew up a declaration which stated that slavery was “founded on both injustice and bad policy,” while also declaring that “the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its evils.”
[[Image:Lawyer Lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Lincoln in the late 1850's, about to debate his rival Stephen A. Douglas.]]
He only served one term in the United States Congress, 1847 to 1849, during which time he did little on legislative matters. He did introduce a bill calling for a gradual emancipation of slaves within the District of Columbia, but since it hinged on the approval of the white citizens there, it only caused mild anger from abolitionists as well as slave holders, and was quietly dropped. His one main issue was over the Mexican War, in which he condemned the American entry into it on false pretenses, particularly blaming current president James K. Polk. He worked toward the nomination of Zachary Taylor for the presidency, and when Taylor had won, Lincoln expected to be rewarded with the job of land commissioner, but failed. He was voted out of office by his constituents, as they felt he was too critical of the war. Disillusioned, he left politics and reentered his law practice.

==Return to politics==
He stayed out for five years, winning several cases before the courts, then in 1854 he had read in the papers that Stephan A. Douglas, his political rival and Democratic senator from Illinois, had placed before Congress a bill which would reopen the territory of the Louisiana Purchase to slavery, as well as allow settlers in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to vote for themselves whether or not they wanted it, a concept which was called “[[popular sovereignty]]” by Douglas. The resulting [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]] would do nothing more than provoke violent opposition; a border war would result between Kansas and Missouri as both pro and anti-slavery forces would cause much bloodshed; and voters in the Old Northwest, Illinois among them, would react vehemently against it, resulting in the destruction of the Whigs as a political party, and the birth of the Republicans, of which Lincoln quickly became a member.<ref>Yervand Kochar. [http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/i_am_a_lincoln_republican_1.html I Am a Lincoln Republican], ''American Thinker'', November 14, 2009.</ref> The [[Dred Scott]] decision of 1856, in which a black man who sued for his freedom only to be told that he was never a citizen and had to remain a slave, only added more fuel to the fire, as the states were aligning slave versus free, North versus South.

As the leading member of the Republican Party in Illinois, Lincoln was nominated for the Senate seat held by Douglas at the Republican State Convention in Springfield on June 16, 1858. The acceptance speech he gave has been called the [[Lincoln's "House Divided" Speech|House Divided]] speech, after the opening lines, which were based upon Matthew 12:25:

:''If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.''<ref>[http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/divided.htm "House Divided" Speech], ''The History Place'', June 16, 1858.</ref>

August through October, 1858 saw seven Illinois towns witnessing the [[Lincoln-Douglas debates]]; Douglas the national figure defending the choice of voters whether to accept slavery or not, and the little-known Lincoln taking a stand against slavery on political, social, and moral grounds. Douglas never wavered from defending popular sovereignty, and he also played on the voters' fears of [[black integration]]. Stating blacks were inferior to whites, he appealed to racists by declaring that the government was "established upon the white basis. It was made by white men, for the benefit of white men." (TL 1, pg 106). Lincoln on the other hand knew Douglas was in a war of his own with President [[James Buchanan]]'s administration over acceptance of the Kansas constitution which barred slavery from the state, further alienating Southern Democratic support; the fear was that Douglas would be more appealing to moderate Republicans in the east. Lincoln's strategy therefore was to point out and use the vast difference between the moral indifference to slavery as embodied by Douglas's popular sovereignty, and the moral wrong that slavery actually was as embodied by Republican opposition to it. Douglas was, Lincoln insisted, a man who did not care whether slavery was "voted up or voted down." By his last debate, Lincoln would narrow the differences between himself and Douglas as the basic principle of right and wrong.

:''"That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the [[divine right of kings]]. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle."''

Douglas for his part knew how formidable his foe was, and declared that if he won, “it would be a hollow victory.” He did win, retaining his Senate seat, but by a narrow margin.

==The 1860 Election==
[[Image:Lincoln and beard.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Soon after his election, a little girl named Grace Bedell wrote to Lincoln, telling him his face would be softened by the addition of a beard; here he just started on her advice.]]
:''My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.'' Lincoln's Farewell Speech to the citizens of Springfield, February 11, 1861.

On May 18, 1860 at the Republican National Convention held in Chicago, Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot. He then set aside his law practice and gave full time to the direction of his campaign, with the object of first uniting the Republicans from anything with which the party could disagree over. The Democrats were already divided, having nominated Douglas in Baltimore on the Northern platform of popular sovereignty, and John C. Breckenridge who was elected on a platform of states’ rights and slavery by Southern Democrats. Lincoln won the [[United States presidential election of 1860]], winning a clear majority in popular votes as well as electoral votes, despite winning no votes in the South.
==Presidency==
For the social, political, economic and diplomatic history see [[American Civil War homefront]]

The state of South Carolina proclaimed its secession from the Union in December, 1860, soon after Lincoln’s victory. To try to prevent other states from following, compromises were hurriedly pushed through Congress, one of which, the [[Corwin Amendment]], guaranteed the existence of slavery in perpetuity where it already existed. The failed [[Crittenden Compromise]] would have gone even further and permanently divided the territories between slave and free. Lincoln publicly supported the Corwin Amendment, believing that it was already implicit in the Constitution; however, he opposed the Crittenden Compromise because it would have given slavery additional protections beyond what the Constitution already gave it. Despite these attempted compromises, six more states seceded and joined with South Carolina to form the [[Confederate States of America]].

A crisis was thus forced upon Lincoln before he even entered the White House. The Confederacy claimed [[Fort Sumter]], in South Carolina’s [[Charleston]] Harbor, and ordered its commander, Major [[Robert Anderson]] to turn it over. He refused. Lincoln, still in Springfield, asked [[Winfield Scott]], general in chief of the U.S. Army, to be prepared “to either hold, or retake, the forts, as the case may require, at, and after the inauguration.”

On the 4th of March, 1861, a few weeks after [[Jefferson Davis]] was inaugurated as president of the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the nation's 16th president. In his address he reiterated his stance: to not interfere with slavery where it existed, to prevent slavery from spreading in the territories, but above all to preserve the Union. The substance of what he said was conciliatory, but it also mentioned the obvious

{{quotebox|In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it.<ref>Historical Document. [http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/lincoln_address1.html Lincoln's First Inaugural Address], ''PBS'', March 4, 1861.</ref>}}

However, communications between the fort and Charleston broke down, and Confederate general [[P.G.T. Beauregard]], believing Fort Sumter had a supply ship on the way, ordered the fort shelled on April 14, 1865. The Civil War had begun.

==Civil War==

[[File:Abraham Lincoln 1863 LOC.jpg|thumb|240px|left|Abraham Lincoln at the front.]]
Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union; he would have been happy to preserve the peace as well, but he was willing to engage in a war to preserve it as well, a war he thought would be short. After Fort Sumter he proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports and called for thousands of volunteers to enlist for ninety days. He also believed that an overland war was inevitable, and he ordered forces on a march on the Virginia front, resulting in the first great defeat for the Union at [[Bull Run]] (July 21, 1861). Shortly afterward, Lincoln issued a set of memoranda for the military, of which his basic thought was that armies in the field must advance concurrently and on several fronts.

 
<blockquote>
''“I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered. Or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me.” ''

– Abraham Lincoln, 1862.
</blockquote>

Finding himself as the leader of a country now at war, Lincoln used a description of himself in which he let events control him, and then react to the problem. It was something of himself that was used with success as a politician. In this sense he was being practical, ready to employ an action or decision which would help the cause, and ready to abandon it and use another if the first failed. But his first insight with which he held fast to, that of taking the fight to the enemy’s army, failed many times when successive generals tried to take the fight to the enemy’s capitol and failed, or failed in following up on a rare victory. He had [[George McClellan]] on the Peninsula, but was beaten back during the Seven Days battles. His replacement, [[John Pope]], lost in a repeat of Bull Run. McClellan was back again, winning a victory at [[Antietam]], but failed to follow through in capturing the enemy’s army afterwards. Then [[Ambrose Burnside]], followed by [[Joseph Hooker]], led the [[Army of the Potomac]] to massive defeats at [[Fredericksburg]] and [[Chancellorsville]], respectively. Then [[George Gordon Meade]] was put in, just in time for the [[Battle of Gettysburg]]; Meade would not finish off the enemy either. [[Robert E. Lee]], the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commented on the frequent changes in generals. “I’m afraid they’re going to find a general I cannot understand.”

Having seen what he done at [[Donelson]], [[Shiloh]], [[Vicksburg]], and [[Chattanooga]], Lincoln found the fighting general he was looking for in [[Ulysses S. Grant]]. In March 1864 he promoted Grant to lieutenant general and gave him command of all Federal armies. Grant would have his headquarters in the field with Meade’s Army of the Potomac, and his subordinates William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George H. Thomas would each lead an army to take the fight to the enemy. Halleck would be given a new title, chief of staff, and remain in Washington as the presidential liaison. Secretary of War [[Edwin M. Stanton]] would be responsible for the procurement of men and supplies. By this reorganization Lincoln created the structure of the high command in which all the energies of and resources of the country were mobilized into a grand strategy for the completion of the war. It was all the more remarkable as prior to 1861, he had no knowledge of military theory or affairs; he threw himself into studying the subject that by 1864, he was considered to be something of a military genius.

==Personal life==

Ann Rutledge played a part in stories as being the first woman Lincoln may have fallen in love with. However, evidence is scant, and what surviving letters and documents there are indicate they were close friends. She died in 1835 at the age of 22, and the entire community grieved with Lincoln.
[[Image:Lincoln and tad.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The irrepressible Tad Lincoln, striking a typical pose next to his father, who could barely restrain a smile.]]
The one true love of Lincoln’s life was a well-educated woman with a quick wit, [[Mary Todd]], from a well-to-do family in Springfield. Lincoln endured a courtship that lasted two years (and was broken once), before they were married on November 4, 1842. Together they would have four boys: Robert Todd, Edward Baker (“Eddie”, who died at age 4), William Wallace (“Willie”), and Thomas (“Tad”). Willie and Tad were the first children in the White House, and the halls and gardens were filled with childish romps, especially from the rambunctious, uncontrollable Tad, who once took a group of office seekers there to see the president on a trip through a confusing maze of hanging laundry; drove a herd of goats inside; got into the attic and rang the servants’ bells for hours; and succeeded in getting his doll executed for sleeping on watch.
[[Image:Mary Todd Lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|Mary Todd Lincoln]]
The Lincolns also had their share of quarrels, and stories passed through the years tended to exaggerate them, but existing letters between the two indicate they were like any other married couple. They were devoted to each other’s company, and when apart they missed each other. "I have fallen in love with her," Lincoln would write to a friend about Mary, "and have never fallen out." Mary did have fits of temper and a sense of insecurity; while in the White House she had spells of simple jealousy which she staged in front of guests; sometimes the scene would be quite embarrassing. She also rang up large bills for her personal wardrobe and redecorating the White House; Lincoln, when he found out one such bill which totaled near $20,000 and coupled with a request for Congress to appropriate the money needed to pay for it, displayed a rare occurrence of pure anger:

:''"It would stink in the nostrils of the American people to have it said the President of the United States had approved a bill overrunning an appropriation of $20,000 for flub dubs, for this damned old house, when the soldiers cannot have blankets!"'' [http://www.historyswomen.com/1stWomen/marytoddlincoln.htm]

The early deaths of Eddie in 1850 and Willie in 1863 may have played a role in Mary’s eccentricity. Lincoln did what he could to support her, even pointing out the presence of a nearby building which housed a sanitarium, hinting that Mary could be placed there if she didn't control herself over Willie's death.

==On slavery==
In 1841, Lincoln had a flatboat trip down the Mississippi, and he saw sitting on board another boat a group of slaves chained together. He described the sight in a letter to Joshua Speed in 1855: “You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.”

Though a gradualist, Lincoln hated slavery. “I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself,” he declared. “I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites.” Lincoln often penned fragments on slavery. He would begin it by starting a hypothetical vested interest in slavery, and end it with the only logical conclusion, that is was a great moral wrong.

:''If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.—why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?''

:''You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.''

:''You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.''

:''But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest; you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.'' (Fragment on Slavery, April, 1854)

Lincoln was elected on a platform which pledged no interference with slavery where it had already existed, and he was hesitant to adopt an abolitionist policy. He was concerned about the reaction of the border states should such a policy be enacted. He was concerned about four million newly-freed blacks being incorporated into the country’s social, economic, and political life. Some individuals, such as General John C. Freemont, made it a point to proclaim freedom in districts which they had conquered; Lincoln revoked those proclamations. In a letter to Horace Greely, Lincoln plainly stated
:''"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."''

Lincoln was willing to play a major part in removing slavery altogether during the war. He first proposed an idea in which slaves were to be freed gradually by the actions of the states, with the federal government sharing the cost of compensation. None of the border states were willing to implement it, and no prominent African-American leader was willing to see newly-freed blacks sent to Africa, as part of the idea called for.

But with the victory at Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln brought out an idea which he read before his cabinet, that slaves held in the Confederate States were declared to be free. He would declare it formally with his [[Emancipation Proclamation]] on January 1, 1863. Although it did not include those areas under Union control, and officially it was a war measure, it had a great deal of significance as a symbol, and European countries who had toyed with the idea of recognizing the Confederacy abandoned it and supported the Union.

Lincoln also felt that the freed slaves would be put back in chains at war's end, as the Proclamation itself was not constitutional. But Lincoln was prepared for something else: he drafted the [[Thirteenth Amendment]] to the Constitution, which stated slavery was illegal except for crimes committed. He also urged the Republican Party to add the proposed amendment as a plank to the 1864 presidential campaign, stating slavery was the cause of the war, and that the Proclamation had aimed “a death blow at this gigantic evil;” only by a constitutional amendment could slavery be rendered extinct. After the election, Lincoln did not wait for the new Congress. He got the two-thirds needed for ratification before the year was over, and rejoiced when his state of Illinois led the way.

:''"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."'' Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

==Religion==
Abraham Lincoln, like many other people of his day, believed, at least initially, that "Religion is a private affair between a man and his God." Doubts about Lincoln's faith have arisen mainly because he never officially joined a church, which his political opponents used sometimes to accuse him. He had a love of the Bible and memorized parts of the Bible, and used biblical allusions later on in political speech. Lincoln said once that:
''"I doubt the possibility or propriety of settling the religion of Jesus Christ in the models of man-made [[creed]]s and [[dogma]]s. I cannot without mental reservations assent to long and complicated creeds and [[catechism]]s."''

He also said on another occasion:
:''"That I am not a member of any [[Christian church]] is true, but I have never denied the truth of the [[Scriptures]], and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general or of any [[denomination]] of Christians in particular."''

He also made statements that suggest a strong faith, such as when his father was ill:
:''"Tell father to remember to call upon and confide in our great, and good, and merciful Maker who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow and numbers the hairs of our heads; and he will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in him. If it is to be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before; and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join them."''

As a supporter of the Christian religion and who recognized its beneficial effects, Lincoln stated to a Methodist delegation,

:''"Nobly sustained, as the Government has been, by all the churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least appear invidious against any. Yet without this, it may fairly be said, that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is by its greatest numbers the most important of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven than--any other. God bless the Methodist Church Bless all the churches; and blessed be God, who in this our great trial giveth us the churches."''<ref>[http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/american-authors/19th-century/abraham-lincoln/the-writings-of-abraham-lincoln-07/ebook-page-41.aspAbraham Lincoln, "The Writings of Abraham Lincoln"] VO7, p. 41</ref>

Regardless of Lincoln's views on faith as a youth, it seemed to grow as President. Lincoln penciled in "under God" after "one nation" for his [[Gettysburg Address]] delivered on November 19, 1863. The phrase "under God" was not in the early drafts. Mrs. Lincoln recalled her husband's last words just prior to his assassination in Ford's Theater: "He said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the [[Savior]]. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem."<ref>http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=2004-09-08&view=View</ref>

In 1864, a close friend of Lincoln's, Joshua Speed, confided in Lincoln that he did not accept the Bible as true. Lincoln famously replied, "Take all this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man".
After Lincoln was shot at Ford's theater two clergy claimed that he had made a secret trip from Washington to be baptized. Also a Roman Catholic Priest claimed that Lincoln received the sacrament of baptism in secret. Neither of these claims have any proof in White House records or his personal diary.<ref> [[God and the Oval Office]], by John C. McCollister, W Publishing, 2005. </ref>

==Lincoln's conservatism==
In his [[Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech|Cooper Union Address]], Lincoln spoke of the sectionalism which was fracturing the country as a result of slavery; the Republican Party was new in 1859, and a serious threat to slavery's existence. Lincoln and his party were called radical and destructive, but he counted himself among the earliest defenders of conservative principles, which was in essence a defense of time-honored, traditional values. Lincoln said that out of the 39 framers of the Constitution, 23 of the 39 voted on whether to prevent the spread of slavery, and that 21 of the 23 voted in favor of doing so. Lincoln therefore said that it was the pro-slavery South that was radically breaking with the tradition begun by those that created the Constitution. As Lincoln said:

:''But you say you are conservative - eminently conservative - while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by "our fathers who framed the Government under which we live;" while you with one accord reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagree among yourselves as to what that substitute shall be. You are divided on new propositions and plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the old policy of the fathers. Some of you are for reviving the foreign slave trade; some for a Congressional Slave-Code for the Territories; some for Congress forbidding the Territories to prohibit Slavery within their limits; some for maintaining Slavery in the Territories through the judiciary; some for the "gur-reat pur-rinciple" that "if one man would enslave another, no third man should object," fantastically called "Popular Sovereignty;" but never a man among you is in favor of federal prohibition of slavery in federal territories, according to the practice of "our fathers who framed the Government under which we live.''

==Lincoln's style of writing==
[[Image:Lincoln seated.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Lincoln in November, 1863, about to leave for Pennsylvania. The reason for his confident look may have been within the envelope lying on the table, believed to contain his draft of the Gettysburg Address]]
A White House visitor, Orville Browning, told Lincoln's personal secretary John Nicolay one day that he had spoke to Lincoln sometime in 1861 on the subject of slavery; that if the right thing about slavery wasn't done, God just couldn't be on the side of the Union. Browning remembered Lincoln's reply: "What if the Almighty takes a different view of slavery than we do?", and right then and there Browning realized that Lincoln had thought very deeply on the subject, much deeper than Browning did.<ref>Douglas L. Wilson. [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/books/wilson.htm Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words], ''Lincoln's Sword''.</ref>

Lincoln was known to think long and deeply on various topics, and often he would take notes, write them on little scraps of paper, and stuff them into his tall stovepipe hat for later use. When it was time for use, such as his "House Divided" speech, he pulled them out, laid them on a table, and would commence to writing. He would sift through the subject, adding this, removing that, and sometimes he would stand in his empty room and deliver it out loud to an imaginary audience, testing the effects of what he spoke, and altering it as needed. According to author Garry Wills, Lincoln brought to bear the rhetorical tone of the Greek Revival and Transcendental movements, in which spoken oratory was practiced in government and on the stage. The leading speakers of this time, and whom Lincoln looked upon, were Danial Webster and Henry Clay, both of the Senate, and Edward Everett, a speaker much in demand.

The training he had given himself also enabled him to write a simple letter or a speech on the spot. Words would flow clear when Lincoln wrote in his later years, and he didn't have to do twice one of his finest personal letters, one of consolation to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, who had lost five sons in the war.

:''Executive Mansion,''
:''Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.''

:''Dear Madam,''

:''I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.''
:''I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.''
:''I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.''

:''Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,''

:''A. Lincoln''

What many consider his masterpiece is the [[Gettysburg Address]]. Here Lincoln, going through perhaps a dozen writes and re-writes of what he had thought on the subject, entirely changed the meaning of the war itself in a mere 272 words, and in so doing, according to Wills, remaking America.

==Politics in war==
That there had to be a certain degree of support to win the war was a given, and Lincoln strove to have unity for that effort in the North. Politics was required, and Lincoln had a special knack for appealing to his fellows and talking to them at their own level and language. He would smooth over lingering differences, and held the loyalty of those who were antagonistic to one another.

But the Democrats remained strong, and frequently clashed. Its member included both war and peace Democrats; the peace side was called “Copperheads”, after the snake which strikes without warning while hidden. Lincoln tried conciliating with both, but with the latter he had to resort to arrest at times, most famously to an Ohio Congressman, Clement L. Valandigham, who was arrested after he had repeatedly exhorted soldiers to desert. He justified his actions on the grounds that the suspension of ''habeas corpus'' was necessary only in times of rebellion, insurrection, or when the public safety may require it, as stated in the Constitution; certainly the Civil War had met those specific conditions. Many would dissent, and openly criticize Lincoln for arbitrarily violating the Constitution that he had sworn to preserve. In response to the criticism in general, and the case of Valandigham in particular, Lincoln wrote:
:''"Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wiley agitator who induces him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and there working upon his feeling, till he is persuaded to write the soldier boy, that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptable government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I think that in such a case, to silence the agitator, and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but, withal, a great mercy."''<ref>[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;type=boolean;rgn=div1;q1=soldier;op2=and;q2=deserts;op3=and;q3=agitator;singlegenre=All;view=text;subview=detail;sort=occur;idno=lincoln6;node=lincoln6%3A569 Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 6.], Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.</ref>
Lincoln faced reelection against Democrat George McClellan in 1864, who promised a restoration of the Union, but waffled on many of its points, even abandoning the Democratic platform of armistice and peaceful separation. Lincoln was able to beat him in the election, assisted by the timely victories of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and Sherman in Georgia. Overtures of peace from Confederates were not wholly rejected. On February 3, 1865, Lincoln met with Confederate commissioners, among them Vice President Alexander Stephens, on a steamship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. There would be peace, he insisted, if the South would quit the war, abandon slavery, and accept re-unification, and once these conditions were met he would be gracious with pardons. But his terms satisfied neither the Confederacy nor the Radical Republicans in Congress.

His postwar policy was one of compassion. As he explained to his top leaders on board a riverboat, the City Queen, he wanted peace above all else. His Second Inaugural Address expressed his point of healing the wounds caused by the war.
:''With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."''

When asked specifically, he related the following, according to General Sherman, one of those present:
:''Mr. Lincoln was full and frank in his conversation, assuring me that in his mind he was all ready for the civil reorganization of affairs at the South as soon as the war was over; and he distinctly authorized me to assure Governor Vance and the people of North Carolina that, as soon as the rebel armies laid down their arms, and resumed their civil pursuits, they would at once be guaranteed all their rights as citizens of a common country; and that to avoid anarchy the State governments then in existence, with their civil functionaries, would be recognized by him as the government de facto till Congress could provide others.''
:''I know, when I left him, that I was more than ever impressed by his kindly nature, his deep and earnest sympathy with the afflictions of the whole people, resulting from the war, and by the march of hostile armies through the South; and that his earnest desire seemed to be to end the war speedily, without more bloodshed or devastation, and to restore all the men of both sections to their homes. In the language of his second inaugural address, he seemed to have "charity for all, malice toward none," and, above all, an absolute faith in the courage, manliness, and integrity of the armies in the field.''<ref>[http://www.sonshi.com/sherman24.html General William T. Sherman "Memoirs"], Volume 2, Chapter XXIV, April and May, 1865.</ref>

==Final curtain==

''See also: [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln]]'' 

Lincoln received the news of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, and he was called out to the balcony of the White House that night by a large crowd gathered in celebration. When asked to make a speech, Lincoln noticed a band among them, and made an unusual request.
:''"I have always thought ‘Dixie’ one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted that we fairly captured it. I presented it to the Attorney General, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. I now request the band to favor me with its performance."''
He entered Richmond the following day, to the joyous delight of free blacks, who welcomed the arrival of "Father Abraham" as they called him, and he paid a visit to the Confederate White House, and sat at the desk of Jefferson Davis. The only thing he asked for was a glass of water.

Just four days later on April 14 he attended a play at Ford's Theater. It was called ''Our American Cousin'', with well-known stage actress Laura Keane and comedian Harry Hawke in the title role. Unseen to the audience was another actor making his way quietly up the stairs to the president's private box, [[John Wilkes Booth]], a Southern sympathizer who had hatched a conspiracy with a few others to kill the president and other leading officials. Booth entered the box, shot Lincoln in the head, stabbed a guest, and dropped to the stage, escaping behind the curtains. Taken across the street to a boarding house, the mortally-wounded Lincoln was laid across a small bed in humble surroundings, similar it seemed, to where he was born. He died at sunrise a few hours later.

"Now he belongs to the ages" Edwin Stanton was heard to say.

<blockquote>
''Dying as he did die, by the red hand of violence, killed, assassinated, taken off without warning, not because of personal hate…but because of his fidelity to union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and his memory will be precious forever.'' [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html]
</blockquote>

==Quotes==
* "A friend is a man who has the same enemies you have." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=HgM4tztnJFcC&pg=PA275&dq=lincoln+A+friend+is+man+who+has+the+same+enemies+you+have&ei=lV4fSuv8N5TyzQS1yq21Dw Civilization's quotations P.275] by Richard Alan Krieger</ref>

* "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it" <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=_-WNU7VapFAC&pg=PA187&dq=Those+who+deny+freedom+to+others+deserve+it+not+for+themselves&ei=NBA8SsSUCp-EzATw0cW6BQ Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America‎ - Page 187] by Chuck Norris</ref>

* "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=Mc-aRv_xCpMC&pg=PA11&dq=Nearly+all+men+can+stand+adversity,+but+if+you+want+to+test+a+man%27s+character,+give+him+power&ei=jJFBSo7nHZbozATAipVi Law school 101: survival techniques from pre-law to being an attorney‎ - Page 11] by R. Stephanie Good</ref>

==Basic Further reading==
* Carwardine, Richard. ''Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power'' (2003), sophisticated biography emphasizing religion and politics [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Purpose-Power-Richard-Carwardine/dp/1400096022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336315&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
*Donald, David Herbert. ''Lincoln'', (1995), by a conservative historian; the best scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-David-Herbert-Donald/dp/068482535X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336403&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Gienapp, William E. ''Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography'' (2002), short bio by scholar; stress on politics [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Civil-War-America/dp/0195151003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336352&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]; also [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103538783 online edition]
*Goodwin, Doris Kearns. ''Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'', (2005) well written popular narrative of Lincoln and his cabinet
* McPherson, James. ''Abraham Lincoln'' (2009), 96pp; very short overview by leading expert [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-James-M-McPherson/dp/0195374525/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249335698&sr=1-6 excerpt and text search]
* Neely, Mark E. ''The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia'' (1984), detailed articles on many men and movements associated with AL
* Thomas, Benjamin P. ''Abraham Lincoln: A Biography'' (1952; 2nd ed. 2008) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=25051697 online edition], very well written biography by leading scholar
*White, Ronald C. Jr. ''The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words'', (2005)
* White, A. Ronald C. ''A. Lincoln: A Biography'' (2009), good recent biography [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Biography-Ronald-White-Jr/dp/1400064996/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249335698&sr=1-7 excerpt and text search]
* Wilentz, Sean. "Who Lincoln Was" ''New Republic'' (July 15, 2009) leading scholar rips apart liberal distortions [http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=2634954a-b287-480e-9fbd-8a4663174031 online edition]
===For children===
* Stone, Tanya. ''Abraham Lincoln'' (DK Biography, 2005) [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Biography-Tanya-Stone/dp/0756608341/ref=pd_ts_b_12?ie=UTF8&s=books excerpt and text search]

== Bibliography ==
=== Biographies ===
* Beveridge, Albert J. ''Abraham Lincoln: 1809-1858'' (1928). 2 vol. to 1858; notable for strong, unbiased political coverage [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3925146 online edition]
* Burlingame, Michael. "Abraham Lincoln: A Life" (2008), 2v 2024 pp, the most highly detailed scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Life-Michael-Burlingame/dp/0801889936/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336108&sr=1-18 excerpt and text search]
* Carwardine, Richard. ''Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power'' (2003), sophisticated biography emphasizing religion and politics [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Purpose-Power-Richard-Carwardine/dp/1400096022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336315&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
*Donald, David Herbert. ''Lincoln'', (1995), by a conservative historian; the best scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-David-Herbert-Donald/dp/068482535X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336403&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search];
* Guelzo, Allen C. ''Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99466893 online edition], conservative religious approach
* Harris William C. ''Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency'' (2007) conservative author argues Lincoln was basically conservative [http://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Rise-Presidency-William-Harris/dp/0700615202/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164706&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Nicolay, John George and John Hay. ''Abraham Lincoln: a History'' (1890); online at [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6812 Volume 1] and [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11708 Volume 2] [http://books.google.com/books?id=bDEOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=inauthor:nicolay+inauthor:hay&num=30&as_brr=1#PPP19,M1 vol 6] 10 volumes in all; highly detailed narrative of era written by Lincoln's top aides
* Luthin, Reinhard H. ''The Real Abraham Lincoln'' (1960), emphasis on politics
* Neely, Mark E. ''The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia'' (1984), detailed articles on many men and movements associated with AL
* Neely, Mark E. ''The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America'' (1993), Pulitzer prize winning author
* Oates, Stephen B. ''With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln'' (1994) [http://www.amazon.com/Malice-Toward-None-Abraham-Lincoln/dp/0060924713/ref=pd_sim_b_img_7 excerpt and text search], good biography by liberal historian
* Randall, James G. ''Lincoln the President'' (4 vol., 1945–55; reprint 2000.) analytic biography by leading conservative scholar
** ''Mr. Lincoln'' excerpts ed. by Richard N. Current (1957) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5993790 online edition]
* Sandburg, Carl. ''Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years'' (2 vol 1926); ''The War Years'' (4 vol 1939). Pulitzer Prize winning biography by famous liberal poet [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=82392773 vol. 1 online] [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97896367 vol 2 online]
* Thomas, Benjamin P. ''Abraham Lincoln: A Biography'' (1952; 2nd ed. 2008) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=25051697 online edition], very well written biography by leading scholar
* White, A. Ronald C. ''A. Lincoln: A Biography'' (2009), good recent biography [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Biography-Ronald-White-Jr/dp/1400064996/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249335698&sr=1-7 excerpt and text search]

=== Specialty topics ===
===Prewar===
* Angle, Paul M., ''Here I Have Lived: A History of Lincoln's Springfield, 1821-1865,'' (1935) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=210869 online edition]
* Baker, Jean H. ''Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography'' (1987) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102075782 online edition]
* Boritt, Gabor S. ''Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream'' (1994). Lincoln's economic theory and policies, by conservative historian
* Fehrenbacher, Don E. "The Origins and Purpose of Lincoln's "House-Divided" Speech," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' Vol. 46, No. 4. (Mar., 1960), pp. 615-643. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X%28196003%2946%3A4%3C615%3ATOAPOL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I in JSTOR]
* Foner, Eric. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War'' (1970) intellectual history of different prewar faction's in AL's party
* Holzer, Harold. ''Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President'' (2004). [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Cooper-Union-President-Schuster/dp/0743299647/ref=pd_sim_b_img_44 excerpt and text search]
* Jaffa, Harry V. ''A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War'' (2000) by leading conservative
* Jaffa, Harry V. ''Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates'' (1999) [http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-House-Divided-Interpretation-Lincoln-Douglas/dp/0226391132/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196166006&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search] by leading conservative
* Nevins, Allan. ''Ordeal of the Union'' 8-volume (1947-1971). 1. Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847-1852; 2. A House Dividing, 1852-1857; 3. Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos, 1857-1859. most thorough coverage of the era, with Lincoln at center
* Schneider, Thomas E. ''Lincoln's Defense of Politics: The Public Man and His Opponents in the Crisis over Slavery.'' (2006). 224 pp.

===Wartime===
===Lincoln Administration===
* Burton, Orville Vernon. ''The Age of Lincoln'' (2007), sweeping history from 1840 to 1900. [http://www.amazon.com/Age-Lincoln-Orville-Vernon-Burton/dp/0809095130/ref=pd_bbs_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196112530&sr=8-9 excerpt and text search]
* Carwardine, Richard. "Abraham Lincoln and the Fourth Estate: the White House and the Press During the American Civil War." ''American Nineteenth Century History'' 2006 7(1): 1-27. Issn: 1466-4658 Fulltext: Ebsco
* Ford, Lacy K., ed. ''A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction.'' Blackwell, 2005. 518 pp.
* Hendrick, Burton J. ''Lincoln's War Cabinet'' (1946) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=790159 online edition]
* Goodwin, Doris Kearns. ''Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'' (2005)
* McPherson, James M. ''Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era'' (1988). Pulitzer Prize winner surveys all aspects of the war [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=64327148 online edition]
* Marvel, William. ''Mr. Lincoln Goes to War'' (2006), neo-Confederate attack that blames Lincoln for defeating the Confederacy and freeing the slaves by stretching the Constitution
* Nevins, Allan. ''Ordeal of the Union'' 8-volume (1947-1971). vol 5. The Improvised War, 1861-1862; 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863; 7. The Organized War, 1863-1864; 8. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865; most thorough coverage of the era, with Lincoln at center
* Paludan, Phillip S. ''A People's Contest: The Union and Civil War 1861-1865'' (1996), outstanding history of the homefront [http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Contest-1861-1865-Modern-Studies/dp/0700608125/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336636&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Paludan, Phillip S. ''The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln'' (1994), thorough treatment of Lincoln's administration [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Abraham-Lincoln-American/dp/0700607455/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336636&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search]
* Richardson, Heather Cox. ''The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War'' (1997)
* Williams, Kenneth P. ''Lincoln Finds a General: A Military Study of the Civil War'' (1959) 5 volumes on Lincoln's control of the war

===Lincolnia===
* Belz, Herman. ''Abraham Lincoln, Constitutionalism, and Equal Rights in the Civil War Era'' (1998)
* Belz, Herman. "Lincoln's Construction of the Executive Power in the Secession Crisis," ''Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association'' 27.1 (2006):[http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/27.1/belz.html online edition]
* Boritt, Gabor S. ed. ''Lincoln the War President'' (1994)
* Briggs, John Channing. ''Lincoln's Speeches Reconsidered.'' (2005). 370 pp.
* Bruce, Robert V. ''Lincoln and the Tools of War'' (1956) on weapons development during the war [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=978110 online edition]
* DiLorenzo, Thomas. ''Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe'' (2007) poorly written diatribe by a neo-Confederate
* Donald, David Herbert. ''Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era'' (1960)
* Donald, David Herbert. ''We Are Lincoln Men: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends'' (2003), on Lincoln's friends and associates; by leading conservative scholar
* Goodwin, Doris Kearns. "'My Whole Soul Is in It.'" ''Smithsonian'' 2006 36(10): 48+ Fulltext: at Ebsco, essay on the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation
*Hanchett, William. ''The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies'', (1983)
* Harris, William C. ''With Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union'' (1997). AL's plans for Reconstruction; by conservative historian
* Hofstadter, Richard. ''The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It'' (1948) ch 5: "Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth."
* McPherson, James M. ''Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution'' (1992) [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Second-American-Revolution/dp/0195076060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164807&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Neely, Mark E. ''The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties'' (1992). Pulitzer Prize winner. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=79055694 online version]; [http://www.amazon.com/Fate-Liberty-Abraham-Lincoln-Liberties/dp/0195080327/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164768&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Perret, Geoffrey. ''Lincoln's War: The Untold Story of America's Greatest President as Commander in Chief'' (2004). well-written but has many factual errors and questionable interpretations [http://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-War-Americas-President-Commander/dp/0375507388/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164840&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Polsky, Andrew J. "'Mr. Lincoln's Army' Revisited: Partisanship, Institutional Position, and Union Army Command, 1861–1865." ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2002), 16: 176-207
* Potter, David M. ''Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis'' (1942)
* Randall, James G. ''Lincoln the Liberal Statesman'' (1947).
* Schmitz, Neil. "Refiguring Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1832-1865," ''American Literary History'', Vol. 6, No. 1. (Spring, 1994), pp. 103-118 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0896-7148(199421)6%3A1%3C103%3ARLSAW1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4 in JSTOR]
* Striner, Richard. ''Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery.'' (2006). 295 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Father-Abraham-Lincolns-Relentless-Struggle/dp/0195325397/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164883&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* White Jr., Ronald C. ''Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural'' (2001) Pp. 234. [http://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Greatest-Speech-Second-Inaugural/dp/0743212991/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164921&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Williams, T. Harry. ''Lincoln and His Generals'' (1967).
* Wills, Garry. ''Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America'' (1993) [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Gettysburg-America-Schuster-Library/dp/0743299639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164981&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Wilson, Douglas L. ''Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln'' by (1999).
* Wilson, Douglas L. ''Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words'' (2007)
===Historiography and Memory===
* Boritt, Gabor S., ed. ''The Historian's Lincoln'' U. of Illinois Press, 1988, historiography [http://www.amazon.com/Historians-Lincoln-Pseudohistory-Psychohistory-History/dp/0252065441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196165019&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Braeman, John. "Albert J. Beveridge and Demythologizing Lincoln." ''Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association'' 2004 25(2): 1-24. Issn: 0898-4212 Fulltext: online in History Cooperative. Albert J. Beveridge (1862-1927), former US senator from Indiana began work on a multivolume biography of Abraham Lincoln in 1922. His goal was to demolish the myths surrounding Lincoln and present the facts. Beveridge tended to sympathize with the South and admire Stephen A. Douglas, as well as rely on information collected by William H. Herndon. But, he did more intense research on Lincoln's pre-presidential career than any previous biographer. Beveridge died as he reached 1858.
* Cross, Roland R. "Edgar Lee Masters's Peculiar Biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Vachel Lindsay." ''Journal of Illinois History'' 2004 7(4): 281-296. Issn: 1522-0532. The poet Edgar Lee Masters in 1931 wrote the only hostile biography of Lincoln; he debunks the "myth of Honest Abe." In Masters's view, Lincoln's actions as president was a corruption of true American ideals. The theme has occasionally resurfaced among neoconfederates and extreme libertarians who tolerate slavery but not strong government.
* Fields, Kevin. "Historiographical Trends and Interpretations of President Abraham Lincoln's Reputation and the Morality on the Slavery Question: Part I and II." ''Lincoln Herald'' Lincoln Herald 2004 106(4): 150-167 and 2005 107(1): 11-30. Issn: 0024-3671; Part 1 siscusses William Herndon, John Nicolay, and John Hay.; Part 2 notes the civil rights movement prompted historians to reevaluate Lincoln's attitude toward race and emancipation. Many continued to portray him as the pragmatic, essentially conservative, "reluctant emancipator." However, by the 1980s a postrevisionist consensus had emerged, which emphasized the evolution of Lincoln's attitudes and asserted that freedom for black slaves, and not merely the preservation of the Union, became one of his key objectives.
* McPherson, James M. "No Peace Without Victory, 1861-1865." ''American Historical Review'' 2004 109(1): Xvi, 1-18. Issn: 0002-8762 Fulltext: in History Cooperative and Ebsco.
* Peterson, Merrill D. ''Lincoln in American Memory'' (1994). how Lincoln was remembered after 1865
* Schwartz, Barry and Schuman, Howard. "History, Commemoration, and Belief: Abraham Lincoln in American Memory, 1945-2001." ''American Sociological Review'' 2005 70(2): 183-203. Issn: 0003-1224 Fulltext: in Ingenta
*Trefousse, Hans L. ''"First among Equals?" Abraham Lincoln's Reputation during His Administration.'' 2005. 199 pp.

=== Primary sources ===
* Basler, Roy P. ed. ''Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln,'' 9 vol Rutgers Univ. Press 1953–55
* Basler, Roy P. ed. ''Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings, '' (1946) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/abraham-lincoln-his-speeches-and-writings-by-abraham-lincoln-roy-p-basler.jsp online edition]
* Lincoln, Abraham. ''Lincoln: Speeches and Writings'' 2 vol Library of America edition, 1989

===Memoirs and interviews===
* Chittenden, Lucius E., [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC00587058&id=b-N27vdmIt4C&printsec=titlepage&dq=%22Recollections+of+President+Lincoln+and+His+Administration%22 ''Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration''], (1891). – [[Google Books]]
* Holzer, Harold, ed. ''Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President.'' (1993). 380 pp.
* Nicolay, John G. ed. ''Oral History of Abraham Lincoln: John G. Nicolay's Interviews and Essays.'' Michael Burlingame, ed. (1996). 186 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Observations-John-Nicolay/dp/0809327384/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196165058&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* ''Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln'' edited by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis. (1998) 864pp, with over 600 interviews and letters about Lincoln [http://durer.press.illinois.edu/wilson/ complete text online ??] [http://books.google.com/books?id=s2gilcp4yYQC&source=gbs_navlinks_s excerpt and text search]

==References==
<references/>

==Links==
*[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/ Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln]
*[http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln.html Abraham Lincoln Online]
*[http://www.abrahamlincolnarchive.com/Home.aspx Lincoln Archive of original newspaper articles]
*[http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/ History Place: Lincoln timeline]
*[http://www.nps.gov/liho/index.htm Lincoln's Home National Historic Site]
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html White House site; short bio on Lincoln]
*[http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=112&subjectID=1 Mr. Lincoln and Friends]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al02.htm Declaration against slavery, Illinois State Legislature, March 3, 1837]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al03.htm Lincoln's letter to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al05.htm Speech in Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854]
*[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;q1=erastus;q2=corning;op2=and;op3=and;rgn=works;idno=ACK7441.0001.001;didno=ACK7441.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000227 Letter to Erastus Corning and Others, June 13, 1863, in which Lincoln explains his suspention of ''habeas corpus'']
*[http://www.sonshi.com/sherman.html Memoirs of William T. Sherman ]
*[http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/E-Books/misc/Lincoln/ALindex.htm The Life, Public Services and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln by Henry J. Raymond]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ A. Lincoln, few words/E.Everett, many words]

[[Image:DcLincMor.JPG|right|thumb]]

== See also ==
*[[American Civil War homefront]]
*[[Gallery of American Heroes]]

{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln, Abraham}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:People who were Educated at Home]]
[[category:United States History]]
[[category:American Civil War]]
[[category:Reconstruction]]
[[category:Politicians]]
[[Category:diplomacy]]
[[category:Abolitionists]]
[[Category:Whig Party]]

Men

2013-03-16T16:14:46Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External Links */

'''Men''' is the plural for the male of the [[human]] species. The words "[[Man]]" or "Men" may also be used to represent the [[Human race]].

== The Bible on Men ==
According to the [[Bible]], men were created by God on the 6th day of [[Creation]].<ref>{{Bible ref|Genesis|1|26-31}}</ref>

===Old Testament===
The relationship between [[God]] and Men is tumultuous from the start. The first three men written of in [[Genesis]] are [[Adam]], cast from [[Eden]] after eating fruit from the [[Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil]] <ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/kjv/gen003.htm</ref> and [[Cain]] and his brother and victim [[Abel]], the elder sons of Adam and [[Eve]]. <ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/kjv/gen004.htm</ref>.(Men were punished with an Adams Apple when the forbidden fruit lodged in his throat)

===New Testament===
The New Testament states that man "is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man."<ref>I Corinthians 11:7 [http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/popup.pl?book=1Cr&chapter=11&verse=7&version=kjv#7]</ref>

==Masculine identity==

Dr. [[Joseph Nicolosi]] wrote:
{{QuoteBox|Increasingly today, we are abandoning support of our boys’ formation of masculine identity; particularly the support needed from the [[parents]]. For the [[boy]], the father is most significant in the identification process. If he is warm and receptive and inviting, the boy will disidentify with [[mother]] and bond with [[father]] to fulfill his natural masculine strings. If the father is cold, detached, harsh, or even simply disinterested, the boy may reach out, but eventually will feel hurt and discouraged and surrender his natural masculine strivings, returning to his mother. <ref>Nicolosi, Joseph, [http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/narth/selfreinvention.html Gay as Self-Reinvention] ''Narth Bulletin'', December 1997.</ref>}}

==References==
<references />

==Related pages==
*[[Women]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/men/ What Liberals Say - Category: Men], [[Accuracy In Media]]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ A Plea for Men (but it doesn't come about by a plea!)]

[[category:Human Beings]]

Crucifixion

2013-03-16T16:11:05Z

BertSchlossberg: /* See also */

[[Image:Rembrandt The Raising of the Cross.jpg|thumb|280px|[[Rembrandt]], The Raising of the Cross.]]
'''Crucifixion''', derived from the Latin ''crux'' ("cross") and ''figere'' ("to fasten"), was an agonizing form of death famous as a means of execution in the [[Roman Empire]]. It involved the recipient being nailed to a [[cross]] and left to hang until dead. The victim, always a [[slave]] or [[criminal]], never a citizen, was mercilessly [[flogging|flogged]] and then nailed to a wooden post with crossbeam.

At one time it was believed the nails were driven through the hands and the feet, but the modern view believes the nails were driven through the wrists. The nails were more dull than the sharp nails of today. The cross would usually be inclined slightly forward to further strain the body. The shoulders would become dislocated. Breathing was only possible by pushing up the legs which would cause excruciating pain in the nailed feet. Indeed, the word 'excruciating' comes from crucifying. Relieving the pressure on the feet by not pushing would once again cause breathing to be cut off. This cycle would continue until the condemned would finally die. Death could come over a course of days. [[Asphyxiation]] was the primary cause of death as the lungs would slowly fill with fluid although it was also possible to die of thirst, shock, or exhaustion. Sleep was impossible. Hallucinations during this gradual process of dying would be common.

After the slave revolt led by [[Spartacus]] was put down the insurgents were crucified by Crassius along the [[Appian Way]] at intervals of 100 feet for a distance of over 500 miles, and were never permitted to be buried.

The most famous victim of crucifixion was [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]], and to [[Christians]] the phrase ''the crucifixion'' refers specifically to his death. While the details of his crucifixion are not given are not given in [[The Gospels|the Gospel]] accounts, it is mentioned that the legs of the men being crucified next to Him were broken (most likely smashed with hammers) so they would die before the sabbath. With shattered legs they could no longer push themselves up and would soon die from not being able to breathe.

French surgeon Dr. Pierre Barbet postulated after [[World War II]] that crucifixion victims on a cross would experience sagging ribs, making it impossible for them to exhale properly. A 1986 article in the [[Journal of the American Medical Association]] states that the flogging of Jesus resulted in deep stripelike lacerations and significant [[blood]] loss, which probably resulted in [[Cardiogenic Shock|hypovolemic shock]] and [[pleural effusion]]. This probably accounts for Jesus being too weak to be able to carry the [[crossbar]] to [[Golgotha]] without help. The hypovolemic shock and the marked difficulty in respiration, along with other contributing factors, were cited as the medical causes of Jesus' death.<ref>[http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/content/news/2005/3_25_2005/ne250305csi.shtml CSI Jerusalem: Death on an old wooden cross]</ref><ref>[http://the-crucifixion.org/ On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ]</ref>

When Christianity became a legal religion within the Roman empire in 313 AD, crucifixion was abandoned. Other countries and areas of the world have used this form of punishment, but never to the extent as occurred during Roman times.

==Johanan ben Ha-galgol==
[[Image:Johanan1.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Modern demonstration of nail through the foot during a crucifixion (left); cast of the ankle bone of Johanan with embedded nail in place (right)]]
In 1968 an ossuary was found near Jerusalem at Giv’at ha-Mivtar, and contained the remains of Johanan ben Ha-galgol, who was crucified by the Romans sometime in the 3rd century, A.D. Among the evidence found was a 6-inch iron spike driven through the sides of his heels; the remains of an olive wood plank placed on his foot prior to nail being driven in was also found, evidently acting as a "washer" to prevent the victim from pulling his foot off the nail. Nail marks were also found on the inner portion of the radius arm bones, and both legs were broken as per Roman practice. <ref>http://www.facingthechallenge.org/crucified.php</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Jesus' Crucifixion]]
* [[Christian Cross]]
* [[Resurrection of Jesus Christ]]
* [[Holy Week]]
* [[Christianity in Conservapedia]]
*[[The Sign of the Cross: of Jewish Origin]]

[[Image:Fra Angelico Lamentacion por la muerte de Cristo.jpg|thumb|left|[[Fra Angelico]], Lamentation Over the Dead Christ.]]

{{Clear}}
==External Links==
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ The Matzah ball and the Sign of the Cross]

== References ==
<References/>

[[Category:Christianity]]
[[Category:Punishment]]

Gaza

2013-03-16T16:07:00Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[Image:Gaza jan 09.jpg|thumb|230px|Smoke billows from the east side of Gaza City, Jan. 09.]]
The '''[[Gaza Strip]]''' is a small strip of land 360 square kilometers, and has a population of 1.4 million people, making it one of the most densely populated places in the world. It was under [[Egyptian]] control from 1948 until 1967 when [[Israel]] conquered it in the [[Six Day War]]. Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip in August 2005, effectively returning sovereignty to the [[Palestine|Palestinian Authority]]. In June 2007, the radical militant terrorist group [[Hamas]] forcefully took control of the Gaza strip from the PA.

{{Clear}}
== Hostilities in late 2008-present ==

Terrorists are still attacking Israel from the Gaza strip with missiles, in response to this Israel is bombarding with a disproportionate amount of bombs. On January 3, 2009 Israel has started a ground campaign in Gaza. It was preceded by an artillery barrage to soften the border so Israeli troops could cross safer. Israel still insists that this campaign is against Hamas targets and that it has no plans to reoccupy the land. Hamas, rather than stop firing rockets into Gaza has begun sabre rattling and stated that they will kidnap and kill invading Israeli soldiers and cause mental illness from the horrors they will bring them. They have also stated that they will begin suicide attacks again.[http://www.onenewsnow.com/Headlines/Default.aspx?id=372854]

==See also==
*[[Gaza Strip]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/04/israel-gaza-hamas-hidden-agenda Why Israel went to war in Gaza] The Guardian, UK.
*[http://www.ziomania.com/images2009/03/03.htm Images of Gaza, 2009.]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Uner the Pillar of the Cloud: Israel in Gaza]

==References==
* http://www.onenewsnow.com/Headlines/Default.aspx?id=372854
<references/>

[[category:geography]]

Nuclear weapon

2013-03-16T13:14:13Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External Links */

[[Image:Nevada test site.jpg|thumb|right|The Nevada Nuclear Test Site where the first nuclear weapons were tested]]A '''nuclear weapon''' is an explosive device which derives its destructive force from an uncontrolled nuclear detonation, releasing massive amounts of thermal, and (as a byproduct), radioactive energy. Conventional weapons use a chemical reaction as the source of their explosive force.

Nuclear weapons usually have dramatically more destructive power than conventional weapon, where the power of a nuclear weapon is measured in kilotons. One kiloton has the equivalent explosive force of 1,000 tons of [[TNT]].

[[Little Boy]] was the first of two atomic bombs ever used during warfare. It was developed by the United States during [[World War II]], and was dropped on the Japanese city of [[Hiroshima]] on August 6th, 1945. It had an explosive for of approximately 13 kilotons. Modern U.S. nuclear weapons such as the W88 warhead used on the Trident II missile, have a yield of 475 kilotons. Given the strength and size of the current US nuclear arsenal, the use of even a fraction of it would have devastating effects on the world's climate, probably rendering it unsuitable for human life.

==Types of Nuclear Weapons==

===Fission Bombs===
Fission bombs are characterized by a type of bomb where the nuclear force comes from a [[fission reaction]]. At it’s simplest, two sub-critical amounts of a fissile material are joined to form a [[critical mass]] which undergoes a spontaneous chain reaction. Bombs such as these usually use isotopes of [[uranium]] (uranium-235, uranium-233) or [[plutonium]]-239 as the fissile material.

[[Little Boy]] and [[Fat Man]], developed and used in World War II by the United States are examples of fission bombs.

===Fusion Bombs===
Fusion bombs, also known as thermonuclear bombs, derive their energy from the [[Nuclear fusion|fusion]] of atoms, usually either [[deuterium]] or [[tritium]], which are [[isotope|isotopes]] of hydrogen. Fusion of [[hydrogen]] to [[helium]] is thought to be the process that causes our sun and stars to shine.

A thermonuclear detonation is typically started with the ignition of a compression fission bomb, which through a series of steps depending on the particular bomb design, produces temperatures and pressures high enough to ignite the fusion reaction of either the tritium or deuterium at the core of the bomb.

===Dirty Bomb===
A dirty bomb is bomb designed to spread radioactive material through the detonation of conventional explosives. A dirty bomb does not detonate its nuclear material during the explosion.

The primary danger posed by a dirty bomb is the residual radioactive material contaminating the area around the blast site. The specific danger posed depends on the radioactive material used in the bomb, which can range from elevated levels of cancer to radiation poisoning. Even if the radioactivity is too low to be a serious danger, such a weapon could still induce fear in a population.

A dirty bomb is of no conventional military use, but would be highly dangerous if used for terrorism. Although this has never before happened, it remains a concern.

==Nuclear States==
The following countries are known to possess nuclear weapons:

# [[United States]]
# [[Russia]]
# [[United Kingdom]]
# [[France]]
# [[China]]
# [[India]]
# [[Israel]]
# [[Pakistan]]
# [[North Korea]]

The following countries are known to have once had nuclear weapons:

# [[South Africa]] (dismantled stockpile in 1990's)
# [[Belarus]]
# [[Ukraine]]
# [[Kazakhstan]]

Many other countries have at one time had an active nuclear weapons development program, but most have officially stopped research into nuclear weapons. Although a country may have the technology for nuclear power, it may not have the capability to produce nuclear weapons, which would require the ability to enrich uranium.

==External Links==
*[http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/index.html GlobalSecurity.org]
*[http://www.iaea.org/index.html International Atomic Energy Agency]
*[http://www.atomicmuseum.com/ National Atomic Museum]
*[http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/ The Nuclear Weapon Archive]
*[http://www.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-bomb.htm How Stuff Works]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Purim, Haddash Hospital in Jerusalem, and Iran's Nuclear Bomb]

[[Category:Weapons]]

Judaism

2013-03-16T13:09:58Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[Image:StarofDavid.gif|right|thumb|The Star of David, a symbol of Judaism]]
'''Judaism''' was the first [[monotheistic religion]],{{citation needed}} dating back to around 2000 BC.{{citation needed}} Like [[Christianity]] and [[Islam]], Judaism is an [[Abrahamic faith]], tracing its origins to [[Abraham]]. Judaism was the first of the Abrahamic faiths. The core of the Judaism as it exists today took shape from a later time period when [[Moses]] led the [[Hebrews]] from [[Egypt]] and climbed [[Mount Sinai]], bringing back the [[Ten Commandments]].

The five books of Moses (the [[Torah]]), in which the [[Mosaic Law]] is found, are generally considered to be the core of the Jewish Scripture, and are supplemented by the works of the prophets and other writings. The works of the prophets are grouped under Nevi'im, and the other writings are known as Ketuvim. The first letters of each part combined were used to create the name of the full Hebrew Bible: the Tanakh, which Christians call the [[Old Testament]]. The [[Talmud]] is another ancient Jewish writing considered by some Jews to contain traditions dating back to Moses himself, yet the Talmud also contains discussion by rabbis involving extensive disagreement and lively discussion, over interpretation of these traditions. The Talmud is not part of the [[Bible]] and the degree to which the Talmud itself is considered to be inspired varies across Judaism, with the [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] generally giving it the most weight. Most Muslims and Christians, including [[Messianic Jews]], however, consider the theological findings and argumentation of the Talmud to be invalid after the advent of the birth of [[Jesus Christ]].

Tikkun Olam -to help “repair the world”- is a Hebrew phrase originated in the early rabbinic period.

==Sabbath==
[[Image:Menora exb HSTR7337.jpg|right|thumb|Yarmulke and Menorah]]
Many Jews observe a weekly day of rest (the [[Sabbath]]) that begins shortly before sundown on Friday and ends after sunset on Saturday. During this time no work may be done, business transactions are forbidden, and light switches are not to be turned on or off. Jews celebrate the Sabbath by lighting candles before the Sabbath, singing songs, going to synagogue, called shul, by some, and learning.

==Branches within Judaism==
There are many different branches of Judaism. There are five large branches:
*[[Orthodox Judaism]]
*[[Conservative Judaism]]
*[[Reform Judaism]]
*[[Reconstructionist Judaism]]
*[[Messianic Judaism]]

==Ethnicities==
[[File:Remarkable Jews.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Albert Einstein]], [[Maimonides]], [[Golda Meir]] and Emma Lazarus (American poet born in New York City)]]
*[[Sephardi]] Jews.
*[[Ethiopian Jews]]
*[[Mizrahi (sometimes spelled Mizrachi)|Mizrahi]] Jews.
**[[Yemenite Jews]]
*[[Ashkenazi]] Jews.

<blockquote>
The traditional explanation, and the one given in the [[Torah]], is that the Jews are a nation. The Hebrew word, believe it or not, is ''"goy."'' The Torah and the rabbis used this term not in the modern sense meaning a territorial and political entity, but in the ancient sense meaning a group of people with a common history, a common destiny, and a sense that we are all connected to each other. <ref> [http://www.jewfaq.org/judaism.htm What Is Judaism?] </ref>
</blockquote>
{{Clear}}

===The Diaspora===
"Diaspora" (Greek meaning "seeded throughout") is the term used to refer to the various dispersions of the Jews throughout the world through the eras of history. Its Hebrew linguistic forerunner is "Galut" meaning the "uncovering", betraying the understanding that being exiled from the Land of Israel is an exposing of Israel to vulnerability and danger. Some commonly known "Galuyot" (plural for Galut) are:

* the forced exile and assimilation among other peoples of the Northern Tribes of Israel by the Assyrians in 721, 722. Modern Israel has recognized among the in-gathering of this exile (Kibbuts Galuyot) the ''Bnei Menashe'' (Sons of Manessaeh) of northern [[India]]. These members of the "Lost Tribe" are now allowed to freely immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return. ''(see [[Religion in India]])''

* the ''Falashas'' of [[Ethiopia]], among whom, like the Bnei Menashe, Jewish practices such as circumcision at 8 days and the keeping of Passover are maintained by those eligible for citizenship under the Israeli Law of Return. The are racially native African in appearance. They believe themselves to have become Jewish from the days of Solomon and the Queen of Ethiopia. That was the basis for the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selase (Holy Trinity) taking the title "Lion of the Tribe of Judah".

* The Galut of Babylon, the so called "''Iraqis''" exiled by the Babylonians at the time of their conquest of Judah and Jerusalem (c. 538 B.C.) This Galut developed a rival to Palestinian Jewry of the first centuries and provided the second corpus of religious literature to the developing Talmud. This was in the common language of Babyon at the time - Aramaic. This corpus came to be called the Gemara ("completion"). The [[Gemara]] dates from about 200 A.D.to 500 A.D. The Gemara and the earlier Palestinian Hebrew corpus, the Mishna, dating from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D. comprise the Talmud, which regulated most of Jewish internal life, until the western European "emancipation" and assimilation of the Jews - starting in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Talmud is still regulatory for Orthodox Jews.

*The Galut of the Jews by the Roman [[Titus]] after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D. They were triumphantly displayed in Rome and dispersed in the lands along the Rhine Valley known in the Hebrew tongue as Ashkenaz - which is known now as Germany. There they learned the language of the land which developed into Modern German. The Jews called their language, the early stage of German, Yiddish. From the Rhine, many of the "''Ashkenazis''" moved (were moved) to Eastern Europe, many fleeing from there, to America, to Israel, to Latin America, etc. learning new languages, but also speaking their old language, not Hebrew, but Yiddish. This, with the common religion, enabled the fostering of unity and brotherhood.

*the 1492 A.D. exile from [[Spain]], where the Jews had previously settled in the time of the [[Moors]] and some attaining to high positions and appointments as physicians, prime ministers, and poets under the Islamic conquest. This was the Golden Age of Jewry in Spain. At their expulsion ("gerush") from Spain they settled mainly around the Mediterranean basin - North Africa, Greece, Turkey, and also many going to Holland and from there to the American Colonies. The first synagogue in America was created due to this dispersion. These Jews soon were speaking the language of the their host countries - Arabic, Turkish etc. but also speaking the language of Old Spain. "Spain" in Hebrew is Sefarad, so the language is Sephardic and the dispersion is of the ''Sephardim'' (sometimes spelled Sepharadim).

*the Yemenites (''Temanim''). Yemen means "right (direction)" in Semitic languages. When facing the temple from the west, the "right" points south. Therefore, "Teiman" also means "south". This dispersion is the southerly dispersion to what is now Yemen, gaining momentum during the Himyaritic Kindom in Yemen which had adopted Judaism. With the founding of the Modern State of Israel, most Yemenite Jews have immigrated to Israel and speak Arabic as well as Hebrew.

The term "''Mizrachi''" means "easterner" and it covers a number of eastern dispersions as opposed to the Ashkenazi who were westerners - from Europe. Coming into Israel during Ottoman Turk rule (1517-1917), many immigrating Jewish families who were not European were given the name Mizrahi by the Turkish immigration authorities as they were all "lumped together" as Easterners.

The Return of the Jews to Israel is seen as a fulfillment of the Scriptures and is called Kibbutz Galuyot, the ingathering of the Exiles. Here are some of the scriptures that both tell about the ingathering of the exiles and which have provided a major influence for the some of the dispersions to return to the Land of Israel:

" I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west, To the north I will say 'Give them up', and to the south, 'Do not hold them'. Bring back my sons from far away, my daughters from the end of the earth. Isaiah 43: 5,6

"Those whom Adonai has redeemed return, they come to Zion shouting for joy. everlasting joy in their faces, joy and gladness go with them, sorrow and lament are ended." Isaiah 51:11

"He who has scattered Israel, gathers him, He guards them as a shepherd guards his flock...they shall come back from the enemy country, There is hope for your descendants" Jeremiah 31: 10,16

"The Lord says this: 'I am going to take the sons of Israel from the nations, where they have gone. I shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil. I shall make them into one nation and into My own land and on the mountains of Israel.'" . Exekiel 37:21,22

==Main Holidays==
[[File:People at a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.jpg|thumb|At a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.]]
:''Main article: [[Jewish holidays]]''

*'''[[Rosh Hashanah]]'''—New Years. Marks the creation of the world.

*'''[[Yom Kippur]]'''—the Day of Atonement. Observant Jews consume no food or drink for the entire day.

*'''[[Pesach]]'''—celebrating the liberation from Egyptian slavery. Observant Jews hold a special festive meal, called a ''Seder,'' on the first and second night of Passover and do not eat leavened bread for the duration of the festival.

*'''Shavuot'''— Pentecost or Feast of Weeks. Traditionally celebrates God's giving the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai.

*'''Sukkot''' —Tabernacles or Feast of Booths. Observant Jews eat and sleep in temporary shelters shaded by cut vegetation.

*'''Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah'''—The day after Sukkot is a separate holiday, known as the "Eighth Day Feast." It also marks the completion of the cycle of reading the Torah in synagogues. The end of Deuteronomy is read, followed by the first chapter of Genesis.

*'''[[Purim]]'''—celebrates the thwarting of a plot to kill all Jews it is recorded in the Book of Esther, which is read aloud in its entirety in the synagogue.

*'''Tisha B'Av'''—also known as the Ninth of Av, 9th of Av, is a fast day that mourns the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

*'''[[Chanukah]]''' (there are several English spellings)—celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple after the revolt against the Greeks recorded in the Talmud and other non-Biblical texts. Jews light candles each night for eight nights, adding one candle each night. Chanukah is not a holiday recorded in the Bible and is considered a minor holiday from a religious standpoint, however from a secular Jewish perspective it has taken on a position of great prominence in modern times passing all other holidays as far as degree to which it is celebrated.

==Calendar==
The Jewish calendar combines lunar and solar features. During Temple times, months began when the new moon was sighted in Jerusalem. An extra month was added when needed to keep the Pesach festival in the spring. Today a complex algorithm, over a thousand years old, is used to determine when months begin. As a result, the dates of the Jewish holidays in the civil calendar vary from year to year. A day on the Hebrew calendar lasts from one sundown to the next, so for purposes of religious observances a day begins at sundown of the preceding civil day.

==Jewish Scripture==
Jewish Scripture consists of 24 books, broken down into three sections:

*'''[[Torah]]'''—The Five Books of [[Moses]]: [[Genesis]] (Bereshit), [[Exodus]] (Shemot), [[Leviticus]] (Vayikra), [[Numbers]] (Bamidbar) and [[Deuteronomy]] (Devarim).

*'''Nevi'im''' —The Prophets: Joshua (Yehoshua), Judges (Shoftim), Samuel (Shmuel), Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor prophets

*'''Ketuvim'''—The Writings: [[Psalms]], Proverbs, Job), Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, [[Esther (Biblical book)|Esther]], [[Daniel (Biblical book)|Daniel]], Ezra, Chronicles.

The Torah is divided into portions that are read during synagogue services over the course of the liturgical year. Jews refer to all 24 scrolls as the ''Tanakh,'' an acronym of the names of the three sections. The Old Testament is the Tanakh, except with some different naming and a different ordering than the Jewish version. Some Jews find the term Old Testament to be offensive, as its meaning can be interpreted to mean the covenant of God with the Jews has been superseded and no longer applies.

==The Twelve Tribes of Israel==
The most famous of the tribes of Israel is Judah. From this tribe came [[King David]] ''“your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever”'' 2 Samuel 7:16, '' Acts 13:34. No matter what tribe you originate from, all are considered Israeli.

[[Jacob]], grandson of [[Abraham]] and son of [[Isaac]], came to be known as the father of Israel, for it is written that God changed his name to Israel. <ref>[http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/tribeisr.htm The Tribes Of Israel by Wayne Blank] The Church of God Bible Studsy</ref> The descendants of these twelve 'sons' of Jacob became the twelve tribes of Israel.

In Northern Israel [[Gad]], [[Reuben]], [[Simeon]], [[Dan]], [[Naphtali]], [[Asher]], [[Issachar]], [[Zebulun]] and [[Joseph]]. In Southern Israel, the tribes [[Benjamin]] and [[Judah]]. The [[Levi]] were to serve as as the priests and their assistance for all tribes having their own levitical cities within the other tribes while having no land as inheritance for for themselves.

Each tribe was composed of a group of families, united by blood ties and constituting a social and political unit. As time went on, the stronger tribes tended to absorb the weaker ones. <ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=762510356&vv=450 Twelve Tribes of Israel] MSN Encarta</ref>
After the death of King Solomon, and in the time of his son, Rehoboam, the twelve tribes divided into two camps. The south was known as [[Judah]] with Jerusalem as their capital, while the ten northern tribes made up the kingdom of Israel whose capital was [[Samaria]]. In 721/2 B.C. , the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered and the elite and powerful taken away by the Assyrians (leaving the weak and powerless) and resettled among various client kingdoms of their empire. The Assyrians, in like manner, settled other conquered peoples in various places of conquered Israel in order to dilute and weaken the population causing them to be compliant to the Assyrian overlords. This is how the "Samarians" were to arise, present in the time of Jesus and and present to this day - a mixed semi-Judaized population with their religious center on Mt. Gerizim in Samaria rivaling Jerusalem. The northern dispersion came to be called popularly "the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel". But some of the "10 Lost Tribes" were not lost. At the time of Assyrian conquest of Israel, archaeology reveals, the city walls of the capitol city of the Southern Kingdom, Jerusalem, were suddenly and greatly expanded. This is because, it is thought, of the sudden influx to the southern brothers of the fleeing northerners. See also in the Diaspora section above, the Bnei Menashe, and see [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/973487.html]

The Southern Kingdom was conquered by Babylonians in 586/7 B.C. with much population taken to Babylon, which was to become a center for Judaism (and the Babylonian Talmud) rivaling Jerusalem itself. Cyrus, Emperor of Persia was to allow the Jews to return to their ancestral homeland, but many Jews preferred to remain in Babylon (most of these "Iraqis" would return to Israel with the erection of the modern State of Israel).

Alexander the Great, 333 B.C. would wrest the Middle East, and "Judah" with it, from the hands of the Persians, and after him, at the breakup of his Empire into Seleucid (northern) and Ptolomaic (southern) parts, the Seleucids took control of the Judah and Galilee (bringing "[[Hellenism]]" - the amalgamation of Greek with local cultures), and the occasion for the the revolt of the Jews against Seleucid overlord Antiochus and the beginning of the celebration among the Jews of [[Hanukah]] - the remembrance of the successful revolt, the setting up once again of a Jewish Kingdom in the promised land, and the re-dedication ("Hanukah") of the Temple (which had been desecrated). In 63 A.D., Pompey and the Roman rule would wrest power from the Hellenistic Greeks, and thus the Roman rule in the Land at the time of Jesus. The Kingdom of Judah, with its King Herod, was intended by Rome to be a buffer state between Rome and its hated adversary Kingdom - that of Persia. In this context there arose, another movement, followers of "the way" of Jesus, the forefront of another Kingdom, that was not of this world, the leading servants of which, would sit on the seats of the now ''12 tribes'' of Israel, and knowing themselves, as the "Israel of God".

Note: Among modern Jews, there is no knowledge of descent from any of the particular tribe of the 12 tribes of Israel, except Jews with the family name of Levi or Cohen (and a very few others). "Levi" is from the tribe of Levites and means "accompanier", that is the ones who accompany the priest and offering assistance in the service of the Temple. "Cohen" means priest. With the last great dispersion from the Holy Land, that of 70 AD at the hands of the Romans, with its destruction of "the House" - the Temple of God, the levitical and priestly families, now exiled to Rome and Italy were careful to record and remember their genealogies back to the tribe of Levi, as it would be they who would once again be called to function when God when would make possible the return to the Land of Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple.

==Post Biblical Jewish Development and Literature==
The Jewish [[canon]] of Scripture was defined at the Jamnia (Yavneh) on the Mediterranean coast of Israel at 90A.D., about two decades after the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. Jews now also lived in great numbers outside of the Land of Israel, particularly in Mesopotamia (the Land between the Rivers of the Euphrates and the Tigris), and in Alexandria, Egypt. Mesopotamian Jewry, with its large core from the exile to Babylon continually added to, was mainly Aramaic speaking while Egyptian Jewry was Greek speaking. Aramaic Jewry began the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into [[Aramaic]], this came to be known as the [[Peshitta]] ("simple" or common). This development was accelerated particularly when the queen of [[Adiabene]], Helena (Shlomzion HaMalka, converted with others to Judaism. The Old Testament Peshitta (there is also the New Testament Peshitta as believers in Jesus translated the Greek New Testament into Aramaic) contains influence from the Jewish literature known as the [[Targum]]. Queen Helena was buried in Jerusalem around 70 A.D.

The Alexandrian Jews also translated, even earlier, the Torah into their language, Greek. Later books were added to the Septuagint by anonymous translators. This is known as the Septuagint (translated by 70 or 72 Jewish scholars). The Septuagint was used by Greek speaking Jews and was naturally turned to by the Greek speaking believers in Jesus. Later Jewish scholars retranslated the Bible into Greek, as the Septuagint was seen as having issues in translations of words, these translations were done by Symmachus, Aquilas, and Theodotios, all converts to Judaism. Around the same time of this process, the Rabbinical School at Jamnia (Yavneh) under Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, decided that what was canonical for Judaism was only those books which had already been accepted as Scripture and were found in the Hebrew language. This eliminated most of the Apocrypha which was found mostly in Greek and Latin (but the book of Ecclesiasticus - "Ben Sirach" - has now been found in Hebrew and considered canonical by the Dead Sea community of Jews) as well as elevating the ''Hebrew'' Scriptures over just the Scriptures of Israel no matter in which language. Eventually over time, not only did the Septuagint drop out of Jewish usage, but so did the other Greek translations.

They were replaced by various translations of the Bible into Aramaic, one of the best known of these was the translation by Onkelos, a convert to Judaism, although Jewish scholars still used the Hebrew translation of the Bible, the laity preferred the Aramaic translations because Hebrew became out of use expect for Jewish scholars.

===="Jamnia" and Protestantism====
Though the connection of Jamnia and Protestantism is little known, it is a real one and one that exerted much influence on the developing Protestant Church and its outlook. The Hebrew canon of Scripture with its emphasis on Hebrew language originals sanctioned at Jamnia, which would exclude the Jewish but Greek language books we now know as Intertestamental or Apocryphal, would be the basis of a continuing textual study and ammendation according to the passing on of readings and comments by succeeding Jewish authorities, scholars, and rabbis. This work would be carried on through the fifth century, the time of the Masoretes - the "tradition (of Scripture) bearers". The receiving and handing on of how Scripture texts were to be read and sung, and what they meant.

When the [[Renaissance]] took hold in Europe, great interest was shown in the rediscovering both of the Greek classics, entailing the renewed study of Greek for this purpose, and the study of Hebrew language. Here now was the possibility for many scholars, and the emerging Protestant ones among them, to study the Hebrew Scriptures directly in the original language instead of the necessity of working through the Greek ([[Septuagint]]) and Latin ([[Vulgate]]) translations. But the Hebrew source resorted to by these scholars was the [[Masoretic]] text - following the School of Jamnia - without the Apocrypha. From then on, the heritage and perspective of the Protestant Reformation churches was that the Bible excluded the Apocrypha, though some of the churches would use the Apocrypha as "secondary" readings.

===The Talmud===
In Israel, there arose a literature, mainly in the common Hebrew of the day. It is known as the Mishna ("secondary"). This was primarily the recordings of discussions of Biblical laws with view to application to the present life and experience of Jews in Israel and in the [[diaspora]]. Changing conditions required more current applications. The Mishna developed over four centuries (200 B.C. to 200 A.D.) and is divided into 6 orders, numerous tractates, and smaller units (mishnayot). Most of the Mishna is comprised of "''Halakha''"- that is, legal discussions, decisions, having, in many cases, enforceable applications either by the Jewish community directly or by the Roman or otherwise authorities. The non legal aspects of the Mishna - the anecdotes, stories, remembrances of the rabbinic lives, etc. are called ''[[Aggadah]]'' ("the telling").

The Palestinian Hebrew Mishna, having spread to Mesopotamia, came to be regulatory to the Babylonian Jews, and, as the Mishna had become a "commentary" on the Hebrew Bible, so the Babylonian Jews developed a commentary on the Mishna itself. This was called the Gemara ("completion") and is in their own language, [[Aramaic]]. The formation of the Gemara took from 200 A.D. to 500 A.D. The whole Talmud then was a work of 700 years. The Mishna and the Gemara together is called the Talmud ("the Learning"). The Talmud then became regulatory until modern times for Jewish life elsewhere with but a few non-mainstream groups not accepting it.

The process of G-d sanctioned and ordained commentary (the Talmud) on the Scriptures is a legacy of the one movement that survived the first century Roman destruction of the temple and Jewish authority in Israel. The [[Saduccees]] disappeared as did the [[Essenes]] and the Herodians. But not so the [[Pharisees]]. The Pharisees believed that with the written Torah given to Moses on Sinai, there was also an Oral Torah given to him, by which the written was to be interpreted and applied. According to this tradition this Oral Torah was transmitted to others - Joshua, then the seventy, the prophets, and then to certain pairs (Zugot) finally finding its expression through the discussions and decisions embodied in the Talmudic literature. Through this the Jews created over 600 laws that they had to obey. Having a "portable" law and, so to speak, a "constitution" in the Talmud, Jews then were able to survive as Jews when they no longer had a land to live in and define them.

==Dietary laws==
Observant Jews follow a strict and complex set of rules governing what they may eat and drink. Permissible foods are called ''[[kosher]].'' Per Biblical commandments, only animals that chew their cud and have cloven hooves may be eaten and they must be properly slaughtered. Additionally, all birds other than "birds of prey" are kosher, so long as they are properly slaughtered. Anything which comes from the sea must have fins and scales. According to most traditions, dairy products cannot be mixed with meat from animals or birds. Vegetables must be checked for insects, as insects are considered "treyf," meaning not kosher. Additional rules apply during [[Pesach]].

==Life cycle==
Jewish boys are circumcised eight days after birth, in a ceremony called a bris where the circumcision is performed by a specially trained rabbi, termed a moyl. They become adults for religious purposes when they turn 13, an event marked by a ceremony called a [[Bar Mitzvah]]. Similar ceremonies for girls when they turn 12, called [[Bat Mitzvah]], were introduced in in the 20th century.

[[Jewish law]] only recognizes marriages between Jews. [[Divorce]] is permitted, but there are exacting rules that must be followed for the divorce to be valid, including the husband presenting a bill of divorce (''Get'') to his wife.

Jewish law requires bodies to be buried promptly, preferably no later than the day after death. [[Cremation]] is not permitted. There are prescribed stages of [[mourning]] for the first year after the death of a close relative (parent, sibling, spouse of child). The anniversary of such a death is observed with gifts to [[charity]] and the recitation of a prayer, ''[[Kaddish]],'' praising God's name.

==Jewish Identity==
Definitions of Jewish identity have changed over the years, and among the various Jewish religious and cultural groupings. Whereas, the Old Testament, stresses the importance of the male side of the family for the most important aspects of cultural decision and prerogatives, thus furthering identity through the Father (male) and his clan, present Orthodox Jewish identity is defined as coming through the mother. If the mother is Jewish, regardless of the father's religion, then the child is Jewish. Reformed Judaism disregards the Orthodox Jewish definition and stresses that Judaism is equally applicable as a religious designation whether through the mother or the father, in line with de-emphasizing the racial, cultural, and genetic background in favor of stressing the ethical content in Judaism. This is in line with Reform Judaism's stress on equality between the sects even in the house of worship. The Orthodox Jewish emphasis on the parentage through the mother as constituting Jewish identity, has brought about paradox and contradiction with Judaism's own sources. Whereas it is clear from Scripture that faith in the revealed will of God and His movement in History is what constituted the people, starting from Abraham, as a People, and then as a Nation and the formation, consequently, of identity, Orthodox Judaism recognizes as Jews those who are atheistic or agnostic, free thinkers, repudiators of all religous, and even those who have become members of other religions. These are considered still Jewish, howbeit, Jews who are not good Jews. The only exception possibly in the Jewish conception of acceptability under the definition of "Jewish" are Jews who have become Christians or members of [[Messianic Judaism]]. Yet, even these, though considered apostate, are considered Halakhically (according to Jewish orthodox religious law) as being Jewish. The modern state of Israel exhibits a contradiction in the question of Jewish identity. Orthodoxy is the accepted form of Judaism, and consequently, a non Jew having converted to Judaism under Reformed Jewish rite or Conservative Jewish rite are not considered Jewish for purposes of becoming citizens of Israel under Israel's Right of Return law. But neither are Messianic Jews eligible (Israeli Supreme Court decision) for citizenship under the Law of Return, even if they be born to a Jewish mother. This is in violation of halakhic definition but is in accord with common Israeli sentiment. What is rapidly being destroyed in the modern state of Israel and which does hearken back to the predominant Biblical definition is the purely racial and cultural catagorizing as to who might be considered a Jew. This is because of the immensity and varliagation in the origins of new immigrants to Israel - Ethiopia (Falasha origin), Iraq (6th cent. exile from Jerusalem), Turkey and Greece (1492 expulsion from Spain origin), Argentinia, China, India (both the long known B'nei Israel and the recently emerged B'nei Menasha of the Northern Kingdom dispersion), the former Soviet Union, the United States, Yemen (Himyaritic Kingdom conversion origin), etc.

==Jewish Humor==
Jewish humor is first of all not jokes about Jews made by non-Jews, nor is it jokes about Jews made to ridicule, making parody of characteristics considered Jewish traits. Jewish humor is humor made by Jews sometimes using material from the Jewish life and experience to highlight Jewish fallibilities to show them either as means of overcoming or defense, or to show them as universals shared by all peoples. Jewish humor is appreciated by both Jews and non Jews, thereby showing the truth of the commonality of Jews with all peoples. Because Jewish humor often is gently self-deprecating or willing to expose the foibles of Jews themselves, which Jews understand intuitively, Jewish comedians succeed, without raising rancor, in finding the humorous situation of other nationalities, without raising rancor. An example is the Sid Caesar's "German General" (below)

ex. 1. A man comes into the office of the Rabbi, while his wife waits her turn outside. Sitting next to the Rabbi is the Rebbitzen, his wife. The man comes in seats himself, and begins his tirade against his wife. She doesn't cook well, always complains, talks too loud, hours on the phone with the girls, on and on.
The rabbi listens carefully, and finally, slams his palm on the desk and says "You're right!" The man goes out and in comes the wife, seats herself, and then begins on her husband, never at home, when he comes, takes off his shoes and his shirt and leaves them on the floor, burps in public, on and on. The Rabbi listens, gets illuminated, slams his palm on the table and says, "You're right!" The wife leaves, and the Rebbitzen explodes and turning to him says, "How can they both be right, what kind of a counsel is that to say, Are you crazy?" The Rabbi, squints at her, slams his palm on the table and says, "You're right!"

ex. 2. Moses Mendelssohn was the father of reform Judaism and a favorite at the court of Fredrick the Second. Fredrick would often make fun of the helpless Moses before the nobles of the Court. This day, Fredrick wrote a note which said "Moses Mendelssohn is the First Ass of the Kingdom", and passed it around for all to see and snicker at. When it got to Moses, he read it, went into ecstasy with delight, holding it to his breast, finally saying to Fredrick, "O my lord, I have been so touched and honored by your note mentioning my name and I humbly ask of you that you sign it for my continual reverence." Fredrick nodded, signed it handing it back to Moses, who immediately rose from his knees, held out the note, and read it in loud and emotion packed tone, "Moses Mendelssohn is the First Ass of the Kingdom, Fredrick the Second."

ex. 3. The visual comedy of Jewish American comedian Sid Caesar [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybqVRYCXFPM] , [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0SG4YhiuYU]

==See also==
* [[What is Torah, what is Talmud]]
* [[Jewish communities in America]]
* [[Bible]]
* [[Israel]]
* [[Israel Tourism]]
* [[Synagogue]]
* [[Orthodox Judaism]]
* [[Passover Seder]]
* [[Singing the Hebrew Scriptures]]
* [[Hebrew]]
* [[Aramaic]]
* [[Aramaic Judaism, Jewish Aramaic Christianity, and John 1:1]]
* [[Aramaic Church]]
* [[Adiabene]]
* [[Had Gadya]]
* [[Kaddish]]
* [[Midrash]]
* [[Targum]]
* [[Christians and the Law of Moses: an essay]]
* [[The Sign of the Cross: of Jewish Origin]]
* [[Essay: The earliest Christian Church, a prison in Armageddon]]
* [[Jewish Biblical way of interpretation: a solution for New Testament understanding]]
* [[New Testament understanding through the Jewish perspective]]
* [[Inspiration of Holy Scripture: An Eastern Christian and Jewish Perspective]]
* [[Messianic Judaism]]
* [[Messiah]]
* [[Jewish persecution]]
* [[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]
* [[Picture Gallery: Israeli children victims of terrorism]]
* [[Jewish holidays]]
* [[Jewish philosophy]]
* [[Gallery of Jewish Painting]]

==External links==
* [http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russia and the U.S.]
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jewishsbook.html Internet Jewish History Sourcebook]
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ Jewish Virtual Library]
* [http://www.jewfaq.org/index.htm Judaism 101] Tracey R Rich.
* [http://www.jewishstudies.virtualave.net/ Academic Jewish Studies Internet Directory]
* [http://www.AskMoses.com AskMoses.com for questions about Judaism]
* [http://www.Chabad.org Chabad's Website]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/jews/ What Liberals Say - Category: Jews], [[Accuracy In Media]]
* [http://www.aish.com Aish.com/]
* [http://www.beingjewish.com/ BeingJewish.com]
* [http://jewishanswers.com/ JewishAnswers.com]
* [http://torah.org/ Torah.org]
* [http://simpletoremember.com SimpleToRemember.com]
* [http://njop.org National Jewish Outreach Program (outreaches to assimilated Jews)]
* [http://ArtScroll.com ArtScroll.com]
* [http://Shamash.org Shamash.org]
* [http://shemayisrael.com/ ShemaYisrael.com]
* [http://jewishworldreview.com/ JewishWorldReview.com]
* [http://heebmagazine.com/ Heeb magazine.] The New Jew Review.
* [http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/under-pillar-of-cloud.html Under the "Pillar of a Cloud"]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Music from Heaven, to the Bible, to the Mike, and back to heaven]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Judaism|*]]
[[Category:Anti-Semitism]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Bible]]
[[Category:Old Testament]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

King David

2013-03-16T13:01:10Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External Links */

[[Image:King David.jpg|right|thumb|300px|King David playing the [[harp]] (Domenico Zampieri 1581-1641)]]
'''King David''' was the second king of [[Israel]] from 1010-970 BC.

With [[God]]'s help, he defeated [[Goliath]], the [[champion]] of the [[Philistines]]. Later he captured [[Jerusalem]], which he made the capital city. David greatly extended the borders of [[Israel]], which he ruled as a united kingdom.

==Genealogy==

David was from the tribe of Judah, with his genealogy being given in Ruth 4:18-22. It is held that it is this tribe that Genesis 49:10 speaks of the [[Messiah]] coming from.<ref>http://www.letusreason.org/Juda1.htm</ref> (Genesis 49:10; cf. 2 Samuel 7:12-16; Matt.1:2 , Heb. 7:14-17). David was the youngest of 8 sons of Jesse, who also had 2 daughters. (1Sam. 16:8-12; 17:2; 1Chr. 2:13-16<ref>see Keil & Delitzsch, 1Chrn. 2:9-41</ref>) The name ''David'', like the similar name Jedidish (2Sam. 12:25), comes from a root meaning “to love." David is the only person who bears that name in the Bible. David's ancestor Nahshon was chieftain of the whole tribe of Judah, (Num. 1:7; 2:3; 1Chr. 2:10) and brother-in-law of Aaron the high priest. (Exo. 6:23) The name of David's mother is not given, but it is recorded that David later placed his parents under the protection of the king of Moab, which some surmise may indicate that his mother was from that country, as the mother of his grandfather Obed was Ruth the Moabitess. <ref>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on David, James Orr, M.A., D.D., General Editor</ref> (1Sam. 22:3; 22:1) It appears that David had a devoted father, thus giving David a good spiritual heritage.

== Before becoming King ==

David worked as a shepherd of sheep, and which would require both tending to the needs of sheep as well as defending them, not only against marauders from the surrounding deserts, but also from the lions and bears which inhabited the country. This was work which, while then unknown to him, helped prepare him to later defend and lead Israel. The descriptions given of him in this regard indicates obedience to his father and diligence in his work.

David was called "the least of his father's household". He was brought into [[Saul|King Saul's]] household to play the harp to calm Saul's nerves, which had been increasingly troubled since he had sinned against [[God]], and was told by [[Samuel]] that the kingship would be taken from him and given to another by God. David witnessed all of the warriors of [[Israel]] cower before a great Philistine giant, [[Goliath]] who would taunt them daily. David, a young shepherd boy, who had no military training, stood up and accepted Goliath's challenge. Saul offered him his armor, but David declined. David slew Goliath with a sling stone and cut off his head, which motivated the armies of Israel to rise up and scatter the Philistines. Saul became jealous of David and what he had accomplished, especially when he heard the people singing "Saul has slain his thousands, and David, his tens of thousands."

David continued to play the harp for Saul, but it did not have the same affect. One day when David was playing Saul threw a spear at him to try to kill him; it missed. With the help of Saul's son [[Jonathan]], who was David's best friend, David fled the palace and went into hiding. David fled Israel twice due to being hunted by Saul, gaining refuge with the Philistines. (1Sam. 21:10; Ps. 34:1; 1Sam. 27:1,2) Almost all commentators see these instances as acts of weakness and deception.<ref>Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.S.A, Matthew Henry</ref> During the latter stay in Philistine territory David attacked Canaanites which Israel was to have destroyed previously, while keeping the full reality of it from Achish.<ref>Keil & Delitzsch, 1Sa 27:8-9 </ref> As a result of his alliance with the Philistines, David almost became part of the battle in which Saul and Jonathan were slain, but was Providentially delivered from this battle. (1Sam. 29) Being sent back by the Philistine's king Achish, David and his men discovered that the Amalekites had taken captive all their wives, and their sons, and their daughters. At this point, David was in danger of being stoned by his own people, but "David encouraged himself in the LORD his God." (1Sam. 29) Twice David could have killed Saul, and though he was urged to do so, his deep reverence for the Lord's anointed would not allow it. Instead, David cut off a piece of his robe (which he later felt was itself wrong) the first time, and the second time he took Saul's spear and the cruse of water, to demonstrate his innocence to Saul. (1Sam. 24; 26) After the first instance Saul was contrite, but soon he pursued David and his followers again. After the second instance Saul pursued David no more. Finally, Saul and his son Jonathan were killed in battle with the Philistines. (2Sam. 31) David grieved, executed the man that actually killed Saul (a case of assisted suicide), and he became king of [[Judah]]. (2Sam. 1; 2) There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. (2Sam. 3:1) Finally Saul's son [[Ish-Bosheth]] was murdered in his own bed. The killers took the head to David seeking a reward, but instead David executed them for unjustly killing their own king. (2Sam. 4) Such killers are set in contrast to David, whose actions show his reverence towards those whom God appointed, and that he was not one who grasped at power or riches.

==David's character and call==

David is revealed as a type of person who was "lovable." It is recorded that both Saul and Jonathan loved David, (1Sam. 16:21; 18:1,3; 20:17) as did all Saul's servants, (1Sam. 18:20,28) and all Israel and Judah, (1Sam. 18:16) and Saul's daughter, Michal. (1Sam. 18:20,28) David overall expressed great love for God, love toward others, and even toward personal adversaries, though he was also a mighty man of war. (Ps. 23; 73; 35; 69; 18) In addition, he was a man who served in many functions and situations, and manifested different gifts, and was called "the sweet psalmist of Israel" (2Sam. 23:1,2) who spoke by the Spirit of God.<ref>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia</ref>

Outside of the record of his birth in Ruth 4:17,22, David is first revealed as the one chosen by God to replace king Saul, due to his disobedience, which revealed serious foundational character faults.<ref>Matthew Henry, 1Sam. 13; 15</ref> [[Samuel]], while yet mourning for Saul, is sent by the God of Israel to the house of Jesse the Bethlehemite to anoint a new king, but he is not told which one it is. Saul's jealous character which will later greatly threaten David is seen revealed here by Samuel's response that Saul would kill him if this mission was known to him. The Lord provides the correct context, and Samuel comes to Bethlehem, in which he sanctifies Jesse and his sons, and calls them to the sacrifice. (1Sam. 16:1-5)

The eldest son of Jesse comes first before Samuel, and prophet that he is, yet Samuel wrongly concludes he must be the Lord's anointed. This results in the famous statement by God, that "man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." (v. 7) One by one the other sons of Jesse are set before Samuel, but none of them are chosen. David is out keeping the flock, and upon Samuel's inquiry as to whether any more sons remain and insistence that he come, David is called. Here, like as the Bible recorded the appearance of Saul before his anointing, (1Sam. 9:2) so it also notes that David was "goodly" (KJV) and “ruddy”, and of a beautiful countenance. The Lord then tells Samuel to anoint him as “he is the one.” (1Sam. 16:6-13)

However, the man he is to replace (King Saul), who was once anointed with the [[Holy Spirit]] and became a new man, (1Sam. 10:5-7) now loses this anointing and becomes affected by an evil spirit sent by (or allowed to come by) God in judgment.<ref>Keil & Delitzsch; Dr. John Gill, 1Sam. 16:14</ref> (1Sam. 16:14) Saul's servants close to him discern this and advise he send them to find a man gifted to play the harp, which one of the servants recommends David for. Saul sends for David, and his father sends him off with provisions. At first Saul loves him greatly, and he is appointed Saul's armorbearer. Having found favor in his sight, Saul requests of Jesse that David be allowed to stand before the king on a more permanent basis. (cf. Num. 16:9; Dt. 10:8; Dan. 1:5)

While David was appointed to be Saul's armorbearer (perhaps one of many), it is not recorded that he served as such in any battles, and the character and ability of David as a soldier is most fully provided in 1 Samuel 17. David's real ministry is manifested as that of his anointed playing of a harp type instrument, which drove the evil spirit away when he played so that Saul became well for a time. (1Sam. 16:14-23) However, as seen in the next chapter where David is back home, his service here appears to have been temporary, perhaps for now going backwards and forwards from Saul to feed his father's sheep in Bethlehem as needed.<ref>Keil & Delitzsch, 1Sa 17:1-54</ref>

==David and Goliath==
[[File:David-goliath.jpg|thumbnail|250px|right|David slew [[Goliath]] with a stone from his sling and then beheaded [[Goliath]] with a sword.]]
The story of David and [[Goliath]] is one of the most famous stories of the Bible, and reveals much about David's faith and courage.

The context is that as there was war between Saul and the Philistines all his days, (1Sam. 14:52) here the Philistines are once again gathered together for battle against Israel, facing off in the hilly region between the mountains of Judah and the plain of Philistia.<ref>Keil & Delitzsch, ibid.</ref> It is thought by Calmet that this war happened eight years after the anointing of David, and ten or twelve years after the war with the Amalekites.<ref>Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.S.A., (1715-1832), 1Sam. 17:1</ref> A well armed, literal giant named [[Goliath]], whose height has been estimated to be between approx. 9 feet nine inches to 11 feet,<ref>Clarke, 1Sam. 17:4</ref> daily taunted the “servants to Saul” for 40 days, morning and evening, defying them to provide a man to fight and kill him, with the winner to gain the submission of all their respective opponent. Upon hearing his defiance, the Israelites were “dismayed, and greatly afraid.” (1Sam. 17:1-11)

Meanwhile, David's father had become frail, and his 3 oldest sons had followed Saul to the battle. David returned home to feed his sheep.<ref>Gill, 1Sam. 17:15</ref> With the Philistine crisis now ongoing for 40 days, Jesse instructs David to take provisions to the camp of his sons, and some cheese for their captain. David was to inquire as to their condition, and to (apparently) bring some evidence of their welfare back, as they were in conflict with the Philistines in the valley of Elah. (1Sam. 17:12-19)

David thus leaves his sheep with a caretaker, and goes to the battle, as both Israel and the Philistines were going forth in preparation to fight, being set in array against each other, and into which David runs. He greets and talks to his brethren, but as he does he hears Goliath speaking his words of defiance. This sends the Israelites around him fleeing, and they declare what manner of reward Saul shall give to the the man who slays Goliath, that of great riches, Saul's daughter in marriage, and freedom from any slavery one might be under. David inquires of this from those close by him, “for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God”, and is it confirmed. When David's oldest brother hears of Davids words, his response is not one of encouragement but chastisement, accusing David of neglecting his sheep and of ill motives, that of coming just to see the battle. David's response indicates he has heard such before but will not be dissuaded, saying, “What have I now done? Is there not a cause?”, and which question he repeats to others. (1Sam. 17:20-30)

However, when King Saul hears of David's words, then he calls for him. To him David asserts there is no cause to fear Goliath, as David “thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” Saul protests that his youth disallows fighting such a seasoned man of war, to which David responds by stating how he killed both a lion and a bear who were after his sheep. David goes on to assert that Goliath shall be as one of them, “seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God”, for the LORD who delivered him previously would do so in this battle. This is seen to example David's basic hatred of evil, and his faith toward God, and fearless character in faith.<ref>Matthew Henry, 1Sa 17:31-39</ref> At this Saul gives David his blessing, but proceeds to arm David with his armor. This David does put on, but finds Saul's armor unsuitable for him, and which would burden him rather than being his defense. Instead, David takes five smooth stones out of the brook, places then in a shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand he drew near to the Philistine. (1Sam. 17:32-40)

Goliath, with his shield bearer, looks around and sees David and scorns the ruddy handsome youth, and drawing closer, he expresses that he is insulted that they would send such a lowly warrior (as David appears to be), and also perhaps mistakes David's slingshot for something else. He curses David by his pagan gods, and invites him to battle, so that he may give his flesh "unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field." David's response is known as classic, contrasting the giants reliance upon earthly means of warfare with David's reliance upon God, in whose name he fights, with the purpose being that “all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” And so that “this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S.” (1Sa 17:45-47) Similar statements of faith would be later be made by certain good kings of Israel, (2Chrn. 14:11 32:8), and his his reliance upon God is also seen in Jonathan, another warrior of faith for Israel. (1Sa 14:12)

When the Philistine arises and comes toward David then he charges to meet him, and using his slingshot launches one stone that hits the giant in the forehead, who then falls upon his face to the earth. David next uses Goliath's sword to cut off his head, at which point the Philistines flee, with Israel soon in pursuit. David saves both Goliath's head and his armor. (1Sa 17:48-54) That the text (vs. 50,51) says that David “slew” (KJV) the Philistine with the stone, while the next verse attributes the means of death to David cutting off his head, may refer to Goliath being as good as dead from the stone in lieu of what would happen next. (cf. Gn. 20:3)

Saul then inquires as to whose son this hero was, and which seems odd considering that David had been chosen to serve him previously, (1Sam. 16:23), but which many commentators see as due to Saul's troubled mind. Says Henry, “Saul had forgotten him, being melancholy and mindless, and little thinking that his musician would have spirit enough to be his champion; and therefore, as if he had never seen him before, he asked whose son he was. Abner was a stranger to him, but brought him to Saul (1Sam. 17:57), and he gave a modest account of himself, 1Sam. 7:58. And now he was introduced to the court with much greater advantages than before, in which he owned God's hand performing all things for him.” Other objections to the text are also made and dealt with. <ref>[http://www.tektonics.org/af/davegol.html Smooth Stones, James Patrick Holding]</ref><ref>[http://www.carm.org/bible-difficulties/joshua-esther/who-killed-goliath-david-or-elhanan Who killed Goliath, David or Elhanan?, Matthew J. Slick]</ref>

==David and Jonathan==
{{See also|David and Jonathan}}

The committed friendship and Godly brotherly love between these two notable Biblical characters, amidst much danger and stress, makes their story one of the most remarkable ones in the [[Bible]]. The story of their friendship is mainly told in [[I Samuel]], chapters 13-23,31 and 2 Samuel 1, two books which contain the history of the kingdom of God in Israel, from the termination of the age of the judges to the close of the reign of king David.<ref>Keil & Delitzsch</ref>

Both Jonathan and David were daring warriors for Israel in its theocratic kingdom, in the land which formerly was that of Canaan, in which dangerous enemies were yet to be fought. In addition, the paranoia of [[King Saul]] over losing his kingdom to David, who was anointed by God through the prophet Samuel to be king, caused David, and finally his fellow compatriot Jonathan (who recognized his future kingship), to be in danger of life.

While the story of David and Jonathan is revealed as an example of platonic love in the cause of righteousness, pro-homosex proponents labor to construe it as a physically homoerotic affair, and charge the writers of the Bible with [[homophobia]] for covering it up, as it lacks the necessary descriptions used elsewhere to denote eroticism.

In response, traditional exegesis evidences that the Bible makes basic laws as well as human sexual behavior (in particular) evident, in their respective contexts, with David and Jonathan's love being manifest a supreme example of non-sexual brotherly love, with all accounts of their affection critically lacking the descriptions needed to postulate or establish erotic love. As manifested by his sacrificial loyalty to David, holy brotherly affection, and commitment to the future of the kingdom, Jonathan's love for David is seen as being of a superior platonic kind than that the mere romantic or erotic “love of women”.<ref>Matthew Henry</ref> And that such homoeroticism expression would be radically contrary to explicit commands and the transcendent ethos of Israel. (See [[Homosexuality and biblical interpretation]]) It is also nonsensical to suggest that David was a homosexual, since the Bible clearly documents the contrary (see, e.g., 2 Samuel 5:13<ref>[http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=2Sa&c=5&v=13&t=KJV#13 2 Samuel 5:13 (KJV)]</ref>).

== David as King ==

David greatly expanded the borders of Israel, defeating every foe he faced. However, his own life was not without controversy. He lost his child due to his [[adultery]] with [[Bathsheba]]; one of his sons [[Absalom]] killed his brother [[Amnon]] after he raped and discarded his sister [[Tamar]]; later Absalom rebelled against David and forced him to flee. David took back his throne, but Absalom was killed even though David had ordered his life to be spared. David also had to live through a revolt by [[Sheba]], but he too was vanquished. Furthermore, because David sinned in taking a census of the land, 70 thousand people fell to pestilence. And yet through it all, David was called a man after God's own heart, due to his true and deep grievings for his wrongs. In fact, Scripture records that <blockquote>"David did [that which was] right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any [thing] that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."<ref>I Kings 15:5 (KJV) [http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/popup.pl?book=1Ki&chapter=15&verse=5&version=kjv#5]</ref></blockquote> David wrote most of the [[Psalms]] in the Bible including the famous Psalm 23, ''The Lord is my Shepherd''

David died after ruling 40 years, 33 of them in Jerusalem, and set up his son [[Solomon]] as his successor. David was not allowed to build the temple because he was a man of 'blood' (a military commander), but his son could. David was part of the lineage of [[Jesus]].

===Historicity of David===
There has been a scholarly debate in recent years about whether David was a real person or, rather, a construct of later generations to justify the ascendancy of Jerusalem as being "David's city", and justify the line of David, David's dynasty with all the policitical implications. Many felt that references to the person of David and the dynasty of David ("House of David") as found in the Bible are "read backs" rather than historically correct statements. The situation that this was to justify was the hopes and longing for the long lost homeland which which began to be expressed with the Babylonian captivity of the Jews after 586 A.D. But that has changed with the finding of the Tel Dan Inscription.

In 1993 and 1995 archaeological excavations at Tel Dan, in northern Israel, at not far from the beginning rise of the Mt.Hermon and the tributaries leading to the Jordan river, pieces of potsherd were found bearing an Aramaic inscription commemorating the fall of the city at the hands of the Aramaeans, the king most probably being Hazael. A heated arguement had been in the forefront for years with many scholars believing the references in the Bible to "House of David" were anachronistic emenating from later times, particulary after 586 B.C. and read back into early biblical accounts. The arguement is now swinging in favor of the Biblical data, largely due to the "Tel Dan inscription", which has been dated by archaeological and epigraphic (script) analysis to the years 870-750 B.C. The inscription follows with the word referring to the "House of David" (the dynasty of David) in both English and Hebrew (pertinent part). Hazael, king of Aram, claims to have killed Yehoram son of Ah'av, king of Israel, and Ahazyahu, the son of Yehoram, king of the "House of David":

1'. [ ]...[ ] and cut [ ] 2'. [ ] my father went up [ ] he fought at [...] 3'. And my father lay down; he went to his [fathers]. Now the king of I[s]/rael had penetrated 4'. into my father's land before. [But then] Hadad made me king, 5'. And Hadad marched before me. So I went forth from [the] seven[...]/s 6'. of my rule, and I killed [seve]nty kin[gs] who had harnessed thou[sands of cha]/riots 7'. and thousands of cavalry. [And I killed ...]ram son of [...] 8'. the king of Israel, and I killed [...]yahu son of [... the ki]/ng of 9'. the ''House of David''.

יהו]רם.בר[אחאב.] 8.מלך.ישראל.וקתל[ת.אית.אחז]יהו.בר[יהורם.מל] 9.ך ''ביתדוד''

== References ==

[[I Samuel]], [[II Samuel]], [[I Kings]]

<References/>

== See also ==

*[[Sculpture]]
*[[House of David]]
*[[Adiabene]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.bible-history.com/isbe/D/DAVID/ International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, David]
*[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1032929.html Recent Archaeological find pointing to support for the Biblical extent and character of David's Kingdom. Shows archaeological approach and limitations]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ House of David, Fact or Fiction: Now Revealed]

{{DEFAULTSORT: David, King}}

[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[category:Biblical Persons]]
[[Category:Kings of Israel]]
[[Category: Biblical Military Commanders]]
[[Category:Jewish People]]

Iran

2013-03-16T12:57:08Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

{{Country
|name = جمهوری اسلامی ايران'' Jomhūrī-ye Eslāmī-ye Īrān''
|map =Iran rel 2001.jpg
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|flag =800px-Flag of Iran svg.png
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|capital =Tehran
|capital-raw =
|government =Islamic Republic
|government-raw =
|language =Persian (Farsi)
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|president =Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
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|area =636,372 sq. mi.
|pop =77,891,000
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'''Iran''', officially '''The Islamic Republic of Iran''' (جمهوری اسلامی ايران) is a [[theocracy|theocratic]] [[Islamofascist]] [[country]] in southwest [[Asia]]. Its capital is [[Tehran]] and its official language is Farsi. The old name for Iran was '''Persia, ''' which is the name of the dominant ethnic group. Iran is actively seeking an A-Bomb to bomb [[Israel]] with, but [[Barack Hussein Obama]] is unwilling to do anything to stop them. They have a program that is widely believed to be used to make nuclear weapons; Iran's government claims the program is to be used for peaceful purposes, despite the enrichment of [[uranium]]. Iran also is said to seek EMP technology in order to destroy electrical current in the United States.

Iran has a plan currently to block the Strait of Hormuz and possibly provoke war with the [[United States]] and [[Israel]].
==People==
Iran is a pluralistic society. Persians are the largest predominant ethnic and cultural group in this country, though many are actually of mixed ancestry. The population of the country has important Turkic elements (e.g., Azeris) and Arabs predominate in the southwest. In addition, Iranian citizens include Kurds, Balochi, Bakhtyari, Lurs, and other smaller minorities, such as Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, and Brahuis (or Brohi).
*Population (2007): 65.4 million.
*Population growth rate (2007 est.): 0.663%.
*Ethnic groups: Persians 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%.
*Religions: Shi'a Muslim 89%; Sunni Muslim 9%; Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i 2%.
*Languages: Persian and Persian dialects 58%, Turkic languages (besides Turkish) 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2%.
*Education: Literacy (total population age 15 and over who can read and write, 2003)--79% (male: 86%, female: 73%).
*Health (2007 est.): Infant mortality rate--38.2 deaths/1,000 live births. Life expectancy at birth (2007)--total population: 70.56 yrs.

[[File:Iran.jpg|thumb|left|[[Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini]].]]

The 1979 Islamic revolution and the 1980-88 war with Iraq transformed Iran's class structure politically, socially, and economically. During this period, [[Shia]] clerics took a more dominant position in politics and nearly all aspects of Iranian life, both urban and rural. After the fall of the Pahlavi regime in 1979, much of the urban upper class of prominent merchants, industrialists, and professionals, favored by the former monarch, the shah, lost standing and influence to the senior clergy and their supporters. Bazaar merchants, who were allied with the clergy against the Pahlavi shahs, also have gained political and economic power since the revolution. The urban working class has enjoyed somewhat enhanced status and economic mobility, spurred in part by opportunities provided by revolutionary organizations and the government bureaucracy. Though the number of clergy holding senior positions in the parliament and elsewhere in government has declined since the 1979 revolution, Iran has nevertheless witnessed the rise of a post-revolutionary elite among lay people who are strongly committed to the preservation of the Islamic Republic.

Most Iranians are Muslims; 89% belong to the Shi'a branch of Islam, the official state religion, and about 9% belong to the [[Sunni]] branch, which predominates in neighboring Muslim countries. Non-Muslim minorities include [[Zoroastrian]]s, [[Jew]]s, Baha'is, and [[Christian]]s.

==Government==
[[Image:Iran population density 2004.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Population density]]
The December 1979 Iranian constitution defines the political, economic, and social order of the Islamic republic. The document establishes Shi'a Islam of the Twelver (Jaafari) sect as Iran's official religion. Sunni Islam, [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Judaism]] and Christianity are the only other recognized, legal minority religions. But Iran is the eigth country on the World Watch List of [[Open Doors]]. The country is governed by secular and religious leaders through governing bodies, whose duties often overlap. (See also:[[Christians in Iran]])

The Supreme Leader holds power for life unless removed by the Assembly of Experts. He has final say on all domestic, foreign, and security policies for Iran, though he establishes and supervises those policies in consultation with the Expediency Council. The Leader is the final arbiter on all differences or disputes among the various branches of government. He appoints officials to key positions including the head of judiciary and the 12 members of the Guardian Council (six directly, six indirectly). He has power to remove the president and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

The constitution stipulates that the Assembly of Experts, which currently consists of the 86 popularly-elected clerics elected to 8-year terms, chooses the Supreme Leader based on jurisprudent qualifications and commitment to the principles of the revolution. The Assembly of Experts reviews his performance periodically and has the power to depose and replace him. Pragmatic conservative candidates generally polled better than their hardline conservative opponents during the December 15, 2006 elections to the Assembly of Experts. (Turnout for this vote, which coincided with municipal council elections, was quite high, topping 60%.) Citizens will not vote for representatives to the Assembly again until 2014.

The Council of Guardians consists of 12 persons. The Supreme Leader appoints the six religious members of the Council of Guardians while the Iranian parliament, the Majles, selects the six lay members from candidates recommended by the judiciary, which is in turn selected by the Supreme Leader. The non-clerics play a role only in determining whether legislation before the [[Majles]] conforms to Iran's constitution. The religious members, on the other hand, take part in all deliberations, considering all bills for conformity to Islamic principles. The Council of Guardians can veto any law. This body also certifies the competence of candidates for the presidency, the Assembly of Experts, and the Majles.

The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran is elected by universal suffrage to a 4-year term. The president supervises the affairs of the executive branch, appointing and supervising the Council of Ministers (members of the cabinet), coordinating government decisions, and selecting government policies to be placed before the National Assembly.
[[File:Tehran Milad Tower Iran.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Milad Tower, Tehran.]]
The Majles, or National Assembly, consists of 290 members elected to 4-year terms. The members of the legislature are elected by direct and secret ballot from among the candidates approved by the Council of Guardians.

In 1988, Ayatollah Khomeini created the Council for Expediency, which resolves legislative issues on which the Majles and the Council of Guardians fail to reach an agreement. Since 1989, it has been used to advise the national religious leader on matters of national policy as well. It is composed of the president, the speaker of the Majles, the judiciary chief, the clerical members of the Council of Guardians, and other members appointed by the Supreme Leader for 3-year terms. Cabinet members and Majles committee chairs also serve as temporary members when issues under their jurisdictions are considered. In 2005, it was announced that the Expediency Council, which now has over 40 members, would have responsibility for general supervision of the system, though that has not resulted in any noticeable change in this institution's day-to-day authority or operations.

Judicial authority is constitutionally vested in the Supreme Court and the four-member High Council of the Judiciary; these are two separate groups with overlapping responsibilities and have one head. Together, they are responsible for supervising the enforcement of all laws and for establishing judicial and legal policies.

Iran has two military forces. The national military is charged with defending Iran's borders, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is charged mainly with maintaining internal security.

Iran has 30 provinces managed by an appointed governor general. The provinces are further divided into counties, districts, and villages. Sixty percent of eligible voters took part in the first ever municipal and local council elections in 1999, though a lower percentage went to the polls in the second round in 2003. Turnout during the December 15, 2006 elections, during which citizens also elected Assembly of Expert representatives, was over 60%. The local councils select mayors.

The March 2008 elections resulted in the conservatives getting a significant lead in the polls, with Conservative politician Shahabeddin Sadr saying that, during early counting, 70 per cent of winners were "principlists" - a label conservatives use to describe their loyalty to the Islamic Republic's ideals.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/15/2190618.htm Conservatives forge ahead in Iran parliament vote], [[ABC Online]], 15 March 2008</ref>.

===Principal Government Officials===
*Leader of the Islamic Revolution--Ali Hosseini-Khamenei
*President--Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad
*First Vice President--Parviz Davudi
*Foreign Minister--Manouchehr Mottaki
*Ambassador to the United Nations--Mohammad Javad Zarif

===Political Conditions===
[[Image:Iran ethnoreligious distribution 2004.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Ethnoreligious distribution]]
Iran's post-revolution difficulties have included an 8-year war with Iraq, internal political struggles and unrest, and economic disorder. The early days of the regime were characterized by severe human rights violations and political turmoil, including the seizure of the U.S. Embassy compound and its occupants on 4 November 1979, by Iranian student militants. Iranian authorities released the 52 hostages only after 444 days of captivity.

By mid-1982, the clergy had won a succession of post-Revolution power struggles that eliminated first the center of the political spectrum and then the leftists, including the communist Tudeh party and the cult-like Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO). Assassinations, throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil, and other acts of violence punctuated this period. There has been some moderation of excesses since the early days of the revolution, and the country experienced a partial "thaw" in terms of political and social freedoms during the tenure of former president Khatami, but serious problems remained. The administration of President Ahmadi-Nejad has witnessed a crackdown on Iranian civil society, continued human rights violations, and worsening constraints on press freedom and civil liberties.

The Islamic Republican Party (IRP) was Iran's sole political party until its [[dissolution]] in 1987. Iran now has a variety of groups engaged in political activity; some are oriented along ideological lines or based on an identity group, others are more akin to professional political parties seeking members and recommending candidates for office. Some have been active participants in the Revolution's political life while others reject the state. Conservatives consistently thwarted the efforts of reformists during the Khatami era and have consolidated their control on power since the flawed elections for the seventh Majles in 2004 and president Ahmadi-Nejad's victory in 2005.

The Iranian Government has faced armed opposition from a number of groups, including the MEK (which the U.S. Government added to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 1999), the People's Fedayeen, and the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI).

===Foreign Relations===
Khomeini's revolutionary regime initiated sharp changes from the foreign policy pursued by the Shah, particularly in reversing the country's orientation toward the West. In the Middle East, Iran's only significant ally has been [[Syria]], but Iran has made strides in improving relations with its Gulf neighbors, particularly [[Saudi Arabia]].
[[File:Ayatollah Abdolhussein Moezi.JPG|thumb|Ayatollah Abdolhussein Moezi.]]
Iran's foreign relations are based on sometimes competing objectives. Iran's pragmatic foreign policy goals include, not surprisingly, protecting itself from external threats and building trade ties. Iran has additionally been accused, however, of trying to export its fundamentalist revolution to other countries, sometimes supporting terrorist organizations, and its vehement anti-U.S. and anti-Israel stances are well-known. Senior Iranian officials directed Hezbollah to carry out the bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA, the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) building in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, killing 85 people and wounding scores of others. Out of the eight individuals indicted by the Government of Argentina in October 2006, the Interpol Executive Committee has recommended the issuance of Red Notices (international arrest warrants) against six: five former or current Iranian officials and one Lebanese Hezbollah leader.

In September 1980, during the U.S. hostage crisis, Iraq invaded Iran to take control of the waterway between the two countries, the Shatt al-Arab, although the conflict's underlying causes included each nation's overt desire for the overthrow of the other's government. Iran defended itself and demanded the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Iranian territory and the return to the status quo ante for the Shatt al-Arab as established under the 1975 Algiers Agreement signed by Iraq and Iran. Khomeini's government turned down an Iraqi cease-fire proposal in 1982, making a new demand for Saddam Hussein's removal as well. After eight punishing years of war, in July 1988, Iran at last agreed to UN Security Council Resolution 598 and the cease-fire was implemented on August 20, 1988. Neither nation had made any real gains in the war.
[[File:Chavez ahmad.jpg|thumb|left|290px|[[Hugo Chavez]] and Ahmadineyad.]]
Iran's relations with many of its Arab neighbors have been strained by Iranian attempts to spread its Islamic revolution, a strictly ideological goal. In 1981, Iran supported a plot to overthrow the [[Bahrain Government]]. In 1983, Iran expressed support for Shi'ites who bombed Western embassies in Kuwait, and in 1987, Iranian pilgrims rioted during the hajj (pilgrimage) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Nations with strong fundamentalist movements, such as Egypt and Algeria, also mistrust Iran. Iran backs Hezbollah (in Lebanon), Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of [[Palestine]]-General Command, all of which are violently opposed to the Arab-Israeli peace process. In contrast, while relations with west European nations have been uneven, they have been driven primarily by pragmatic goals of trade and security. Iran has accepted stronger commercial ties but largely declined to deliver on key European political concerns such as human rights and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) acquisition efforts, particularly in the nuclear field, where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been strongly critical of Iran.

An IAEA report in November 2003 provided evidence that Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), had concealed secret nuclear activities for 18 years. Under international pressure, Iran signed the Additional Protocol to the Safeguards Agreement on December 18, 2003, agreeing to suspend all uranium-enrichment and reprocessing activities voluntarily, as well as cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in resolving questions regarding Iran's nuclear program. In June 2004, the IAEA rebuked Iran for failing to fully cooperate with an inquiry into its nuclear activities, and in November 2004, Iran agreed to suspend most of its uranium enrichment under a deal with the EU. That promise did not last, however, and since then concerns over Iran's nuclear activities have increased.

On June 6, 2006, [[China]], [[France]], [[Germany]], [[Russia]], the [[United States]], and [[United Kingdom]] offered Iran a substantial package of economic cooperation and assistance. Tehran, however, was first required to come into compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guidelines on its nuclear program, suspending its [[uranium]] enrichment program. On July 31, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1696 on the Iranian nuclear question, requiring Iran to suspend all activities related to enrichment and reprocessing, including research and development, as demanded by the IAEA, or else face possible sanctions. Tehran defied the UN Security Council (UNSC) deadline of August 31, leading to the passage of UNSC Resolution 1636 in December 2006 and, as Iran continued to balk, Resolution 1747 in March 2007.
[[File:Iran Pakistan India gas pipeline.JPG|thumb|300px|Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.]]
Iran sparked an international controversy when its forces seized and held hostage 15 British sailors and marines, conducting routine anti-smuggling operations in Iraqi territorial waters under UN mandate, on March 23, 2007. Tehran released the U.K. service members on April 6.

Iran maintains regular diplomatic and commercial relations with Russia and the former Soviet republics. Both Iran and Russia believe they have important national interests at stake in developments in Central Asia and the Transcaucasus, particularly regarding energy resources from the Caspian Sea. Russian and other sales of military equipment and technology to Iran concern Iran's neighbors and the United States. Washington is also concerned about Russian assistance in building at nuclear facility at Bushehr.

Iran spends about 3.3% of its GDP on its military. Iran's military consists of both a national military held over from the shah's government and the IRGC, each with its own ground, naval and air branches. The Iran-Iraq war took a heavy toll on these military forces. Iran is trying to modernize its military, including ballistic missile programs, and acquire weapons of mass destruction; it continues to seek nuclear capabilities. On November 7, 2007, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had 3,000 centrifuges operating in its uranium enrichment program, which would be enough to produce a nuclear weapon. <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,308903,00.html</ref> However, a December, 2007 U.S. intelligence report stated that Iran halted its nuclear program in 2003, and remains on hold. According to the National Intelligence Estimate, "We do not know whether (Iran) currently intends to develop nuclear weapons."<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071203/ts_nm/iran_usa_dc Report contradicts Bush on Iran nuclean program]</ref>

===Relations with the United States===
[[File:US Iran.gif|right]]
On November 4, 1979, militant Iranian students occupied the American Embassy in Tehran with the support of Ayatollah Khomeini. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days. On April 7, 1980, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran, and on April 24, 1981, the Swiss Government assumed representation of U.S. interests in Tehran. Iranian interests in the United States are represented by the Government of Pakistan. The Islamic Republic of Iran does not have its own embassy in Washington, though it does have a permanent mission to the United Nations in New York City.

In accordance with the Algiers declaration of January 20, 1981, the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal (located in The Hague, Netherlands) was established for the purpose of handling claims of U.S. nationals against Iran and of Iranian nationals against the United States. U.S. contact with Iran through The Hague covers only legal matters.

The U.S. Government, by Executive Orders issued by the President as well as by Congressional legislation, prohibits most trade with Iran. Some sanctions were imposed on Iran because Tehran is a state sponsor of terrorism, others because of the nuclear [[proliferation]] issues, and still more for human rights violations, including infringement of religious freedom. The commercial relations that do exist between the two countries consist mainly of Iranian purchases of food and medical products and U.S. imports of carpets and food. Some sanctions were temporarily waived in the wake of the devastating Bam earthquake of December 2003. U.S. officials and relief workers actively assisted in relief and reconstruction efforts.

There are serious obstacles to improved relations between the two countries. As a state sponsor of terrorism, Iran remains an impediment to international efforts to locate and prosecute terrorists. Recent attempts by Iran to form loose alliances with anti-U.S. governments in the Western Hemisphere, such as the Venezuelan Government, has further heightened concern about Iran's support for terrorism and nuclear ambitions. Operation Iraqi Freedom removed the Iranian Government's greatest security threat, but officially Iran remained neutral about U.S. policy, sometimes strongly condemning American policies and actions in Iraq. Iran has cultural ties to elements of the populations of both Iraq and Afghanistan. It has made some positive contributions to stability in both countries, but other actions have had the opposite effect. It remains to be seen whether Tehran will ultimately be a constructive force in the reconstruction of its two neighbors or not.

The U.S. Government defines its areas of objectionable Iranian behavior as the following:
*Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction;
*Its support for and involvement in international terrorism;
*Its support for violent opposition to the Middle East peace process, as well as its harmful activities particularly in Lebanon, as well as in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the region; and
*Its dismal human rights record and lack of respect for its own people.

The United States has held discussions with Iranian representatives on particular issues of concern over the years. U.S. and Iranian envoys cooperated during operations to overthrow the Taliban in 2001 and during the Bonn Conference in 2002 that established a broad-based government for the Afghan people under President Karzai. The Secretary of State, her Iranian counterpart, and others met at talks on Iraq in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on May 3, 2007. The American and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq took part in face-to-face discussions in Baghdad, with Iraqi officials in attendance, on May 28, 2007. The United States believes, however, that normal relations are impossible until Iran's policies change.

Nevertheless, the U.S. State Department is supporting efforts to further the cause of democracy in Iran. In fiscal year (FY) 2006, the U.S. Congress allocated approximately $66 million to promote free media, personal freedom, and a better understanding of western values and culture. As part of these efforts, the Department supports efforts to develop civil society in Iran and exchange programs that bring Iranian students, athletes, professionals and others to the United States.

The Secretary of State has stated that Iranian agreement to abide by UNSC Resolutions 1696 and 1747, calling for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment and comply with its international nuclear obligations, could lead to the direct negotiations between American and Iranian government officials, not only on Iran's nuclear case but on a wide range of issues.

In May 2007, the Iranian Government charged and in some cases imprisoned a handful of innocent Iranian-American scholars, civil society actors, and journalists, accused by the regime of jeopardizing the security of the state. The international community, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private citizens have joined the U.S. Government in calling for the release of the detained dual nationals, as well as Iranian cooperation in the case of missing retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, last reported on Kish Island, Iran, on March 8, 2007.

===Covert operations and the 2009 elections===
Beginning in 2004, U.S. President [[George W. Bush]] is reported to have signed a series of Executive Orders initiating covert operations aimed at destabilizing the Iranian regime.<ref>[http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2009/intell-090113-rferl01.htm ''Reports Suggest Obama Faces Early Choice On Iran Covert Ops''], Ron Synovitz, Globalsecurity.org January 13, 2009.</ref> The CIA was authorized to supply communications equipment which would enable opposition groups in Iran to work together and bypass internet censorship by the government.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552784/Bush-sanctions-black-ops-against-Iran.html ''Bush sanctions 'black ops' against Iran''], London Telegraph, 27 May 2007.</ref> During the domestic unrest following the post-election protests in which opposition groups accused the regime of rigged elections, U.S. Secretary of State [[Hillary Clinton]] urged Twitter networking service to keep the system running, leading to complaints from Iran's government. Protesters used Twitter to communicate amid the clampdown.<ref>[http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-twitter18-2009jun18,0,5845567.story ''Hillary Clinton defends Twitter efforts for Iran''], L.A. Times, June 17, 2009.</ref>

==Economy==
[[Image:Iran industry mining78.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Iranian industry and mining]]
Pre-revolutionary Iran's economic development was rapid. Traditionally an agricultural society, by the 1970s Iran had achieved significant industrialization and economic modernization. However, the pace of growth had slowed dramatically by 1978, just before the Islamic revolution. Since the fall of the shah, economic recovery has proven elusive thanks to a combination of factors, including fluctuations in the global energy market. Economic activity was severely disrupted additionally by years of upheaval and uncertainty surrounding the revolution and the introduction of statist economic policies. These conditions were worsened by the war with Iraq and the decline in world oil prices beginning in late 1985. After the war with Iraq ended, the situation began to improve: Iran's GDP grew for two years running, partly from an oil windfall in 1990, and there was a substantial increase in imports. However, Iran had suffered a brain drain throughout the previous decade and wartime policies had resulted in a demographic explosion.

A decrease in oil revenues in 1991 and growing external debt dampened optimism for recovery. In March 1989, the government instituted a new 5-year plan for economic development, which loosened state control and allowed Iran to seek greater latitude in accessing foreign capital. Mismanagement and inefficient bureaucracy, as well as political and ideological infighting, hampered the formulation and execution of a consolidated economic policy, and the Iran fell short of the plan's goals while economic inequality was aggravated. Today, Iran's economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil and other large enterprises, village agriculture, and small-scale private trading and service ventures. Former President Khatami followed the market reform plans of his predecessor, President Rafsanjani, and indicated that he would pursue diversification of Iran's oil-reliant economy, although he made little progress toward that goal. High [[inflation]] and expansive public transfer programs, as well as powerful economic-political vested interests created obstacles for rapid reform.

During the 2005 election campaign, President Ahmadi-Nejad promised to redistribute oil revenues to the impoverished, fund large infrastructure projects, and privatize Iranian state enterprises. He has been criticized within Iran for not carrying through on many of his promises. While establishment of the Imam Reza fund for cheap loans to youth has been popular, a law increasing the minimum was revoked because of the huge strain on employers. The "Shares of Justice" program--distributing shares of state-owned enterprises to the poor--faces a number of potential problems.
[[File:Naghshe Jahan Square Isfahan Iran.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Naghshe Jahan Square, Isfahan.]]
Unemployment was estimated to be 20% for 2007, according to the International Monetary Fund. Unemployment, a major problem even before the revolution, has many causes, including population growth, high minimum wage level and other restrictive labor policies. Farmers and peasants enjoyed a psychological boost from the attention given them by the Islamic regime but hardly appear to be better off in economic terms. The government has made progress on rural development, including electrification and road building, but Iran still faces inefficiencies related to agricultural land usage which are politically difficult to reconcile. Agriculture also has suffered from shortages of capital, raw materials, and equipment, problems dating back to the 1980-1988 war with Iraq. (See Foreign Relations above.)

Although Islam guarantees the right to private ownership, banks and some industries--including the petroleum, transportation, utilities, and mining sectors--were nationalized after the revolution under Marxist-influenced economic policies. Starting under President Rafsanjani, Iran has pursued some privatization through its nascent equities markets. However, the industrial sector remains plagued by low labor productivity and shortages of raw materials and spare parts, and is uncompetitive against foreign imports.

Increases in the price of oil starting in 2003 have increased state revenue enormously and permitted a much larger degree of spending on social programs than previously anticipated. However, this has not eased economic hardships such as high unemployment and inflation. The proportion of the economy devoted to the development of weapons of mass destruction and military spending overall remains a contentious issue with leading Western nations.

Earnings from Iranian oil exports, projected at $57-$87 billion for 2007-2008, are placed into the Oil Stabilization Fund (OSF), originally designed as a Treasury safety net if oil prices dropped below $20/barrel. In practice, the government has drawn upon the OSF to cover over expenditures. Iran relies on oil for 80% of its export revenue, and 40% of total revenues. (Note: Iran's refining capacity is limited, and Tehran is a net gasoline importer, spending $2.6 billion for foreign gas in 2005.)
*GDP (purchasing power parity, 2006 est.): $599.2 billion.
*GDP (official exchange rate, 2006 est.): $193.5 billion.
*GDP real growth rate (2007 est.): 4.6%.
*GDP composition by sector (2006): Agriculture 11.2%, industry 41.7%, services 47.1%.
*Per capita income (2006 est.): $8,700.
*Work force: 24.36 million.
*Work force - by occupation (2001 est.): Agriculture 30%, industry 25%, services 45%.
*Unemployment rate (2007 est.): 20%.
*Natural resources: [[Petroleum]], [[natural gas]], [[coal]], [[chromium]], [[copper]], [[iron ore]], [[lead manganese]], [[zinc]], [[sulfur]].
*Agriculture: Principal products--wheat, rice, other grains, sugar beets, fruits, nuts, cotton, dairy products, wool, caviar. Note: Iran is not self-sufficient in terms of food.
*Industry: Types--petroleum, petrochemicals, textiles, cement and building materials, food processing (particularly sugar refining and vegetable oil production), metal fabricating (particularly steel and copper), armaments.
*Trade (2007 est.): Exports--$56.9 billion: petroleum 80%, chemical and petrochemical products, carpets, fruits, nuts. Major export partners (2006): Japan (17.3%), China (11.4%), Italy (6.2%), South Korea (5.2%), South Africa (5.5%), Turkey (5.7%), Netherlands (4.6%), France (4.1%), Taiwan (4.1%). Imports--$48.1 billion: industrial raw materials and intermediate goods, capital goods, foodstuffs and other consumer goods, technical services, military supplies. Major import partners: Germany (14.2%), U.A.E. (6.7%), China (8.3%), Italy (7.5%), France (6.2%), South Korea (5.4%), Russia (4.9%).

== History ==
[[Image:Colossal Bull Head.gif|left]]
see [[History of Iran]]
[[File:Persepolis-Hundred Columns Hall Iran.jpg|thumb|300px|Persepolis-Hundred Columns Hall.]]
Tensions between Iran and the United States have increased since Iran was identified by President Bush in January 2002 as part of the [[Axis of Evil]], and particularly since the 2005 election of Ahmadinejad. An attempt by the [[European Union]] to negotiate a surrender of or reduction in [[Iranian nuclear efforts]] failed, leading to the [[United Nations Security Council]] voting to impose limited [[sanctions]]. The United States has since lobbied for sanctions more along the lines of those imposed on 1990 upon [[Iraq]], which remained in place until the beginning of [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]] in 2003. Talks in March 2007 between U. S., Iranian, and [[Syrian]] diplomats at a regional conference organized by Iraq proved unproductive, although the willingness of the parties to talk was itself regarded by some as a sign that war had become somewhat less likely.

In spite of the relative overstretch of the U. S. [[military]], the utility of an attack on Iran, or at least its nuclear facilities, was a live [[debate]] among American opinion leaders throughout 2006. Objections to such an attack were mostly based upon the belief that this would represent the first step on a [[slippery slope]] to [[occupation]] of Iran, which would probably require [[conscription]] in the United States, a step [[conservatives]] and most military leaders oppose. The debate, however, appeared to have been won decisively by the hawks following the regime's suicidal decision in late March 2007 not to promptly release 15 British sailors and marines it had captured on March 23, 2007.

In 2007, [[NATO]] officials caught Iran "red-handed" shipping heavy arms, C4 explosives and advanced roadside bombs to the [[Taliban]] for use against NATO forces.<ref>''[http://www.aina.org/news/20070608101313.htm Iran Caught Red-Handed Shipping Arms to Taliban]''. June 8, 2007. Assyrian International News Agency.</ref> The NATO officials stated that the incident was a "dramatic escalation of Iran's proxy war against the [[United States]] and [[United Kingdom]]".<ref>''[http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/06/document_iran_c.html Document: Iran Caught Red-Handed Shipping Arms to Taliban]''. June 6, 2007. ABC News.</ref>

A [[United States]] intelligence report in 2007 noted growing public unrest in Iran over the bleak economic situation. <ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/ap_on_go_ot/us_iran;_ylt=AqDn5RrWdeIow5YjHjscMn2yFz4D Draft report logs bleak outlook for Iran. August 24, 2007. Associated Press. </ref>

==Moral legislation in Iran==
[[Image:Maleki An Achaemenian Soldier.jpg|thumb|An Achaemenian Soldier by Iman Maleki.]]
[[Homosexuality|Homosexuals]] get the death penalty in Iran.
<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297982,00.html Iran Does Far Worse Than Ignore Gays, Critics Say] Fox News, September 25, 2007</ref> However, in a speech at Columbia Univeristy, the president of Iran stated that homosexuality does not exist in his nation.

In Iran, production and consumption of alcohol by Muslims is prohibited. However, Iranian law makes an exception for minority groups, such as the Christian [[Armenia]]ns, who are allowed to produce and consume [[wine]] and distilled spirits. Naturally, these communities produce far more alcohol than they consume, "illegally" selling it to Muslims who drink in contradiction of [[Sharia]] law.

Prostitution is also prohibited in Iran, but there are allegations that نكاح المتعة (temporary marriage, legal in [[Usuli]] [[Shia]] jurisprudence) is exploited to solemnize marriages of such short duration (hours or days) that the activities thus permitted more resemble dating (if money is not exchanged) or prostitution (if a fee is charged for the marriage).

==Further reading==
*[http://www.townhall.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?contentGUID=e3d7a4b3-5763-41db-afaf-9f5b2304ca9f Iran: Western Spy Networks Discovered], May 26, 2007.
*[http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21816881-38197,00.html Iranian-American charged with spying], May 29, 2007.

==See also==
*[[Previous Breaking News/Iran|Articles about '''Iran''' from previous "Breaking News"]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2011/06/16/iran_leader_calls_for_alliance_against_west/ Iran leader calls for alliance against West.]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Purim, Haddasah Hospital in Jerusalem, and Iran's Nuclear Bomb]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [http://www.president.ir/eng/ Official website of the President of Iran]
* [http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/ The blog of the President of Iran]
* [http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articlenavigation/index.isc Encyclopædia Iranica]
* [http://www.wikiran.org/ WikIran Encyclopedia]

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

Source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5314.htm]}}

{{Asian Countries}}
[[Category:Iran]]
[[Category:Middle Eastern Countries]]
[[Category:Muslim-Majority Countries]]
[[Category:Dictatorships]]

Salvation

2013-03-16T12:53:00Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

{{Christianity}}
'''Salvation''', in the primary Biblical sense, is the free gift of God through the [[Propitiation|propitiatory]] (sacrificial atoning) death of [[Jesus Christ]] and His [[resurrection]], in accordance with the Scriptures. When a person humbles themselves before God ''(in genuine repentance of the evil in their heart)'' and accepts Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior (authority in every area of life), that person is given the gift of salvation. Salvation means being forgiven and reconciled with God, being ''saved from'' [[Hell]] and receiving the gift of eternal life, and entering into a relationship with the Lord of [[Heaven]]. It is also more than just being ''saved from'' the consequences of sin; it also carries with it the idea of being ''saved out of'' the slave market of [[sin]].

==Terminology==

Terms such as ''saved'' or ''salvation'' are not restricted to the salvation of the soul, as God saves people daily from temporal evils, but its most supreme manifestation is in relation to the spiritual and eternal realm, that of the redemption of the soul, and which subject is theologically termed ''soteriology''.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia explains,

In English Versions of the Bible the words “salvation” “save,” are not technical theological terms, but denote simply “deliverance,” in almost any sense the latter word can have. In systematic theology, however, “salvation” denotes the whole process by which man is delivered from all that would prevent his attaining to the highest good that God has prepared for him. Or, by a transferred sense, “salvation” denotes the actual enjoyment of that good... Salvation from physical evil was a very real part, however subordinate, of Christ's teaching. (Mar_1:34, etc.)

==The gospel of the grace of God==

The Biblical [[gospel]] ("good news") is most essentially the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1Cor. 15:1-4ff) This "word of truth" (Eph. 1:13) has the God of the Bible as its object of faith, as "the Father sent the Son, the Saviour of the world." (1Jn. 4:10) This message reveals that "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." But whom men, "by wicked hands", nailed to a cross and killed, Christ suffering "once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened [resurrected alive] by the Spirit". And that Jesus Christ "showed Himself alive after His passion [suffering and death] by many infallible proofs, being seen of them [His apostles) forty days," as well as by over five hundred brethren at once. And "who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him." It concludes that it is this Jesus "who is ordained of God to be the Judge of living and dead", and that "to Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins." (Acts 1:3; 2:23; 10:38,40,42,43; 1Cor. 15:6; 1Pet. 3:18,22)

In addition to the living and true God of the Bible being the object of faith and obedience, a primary aspect of the Biblical gospel is that neither the sacrifices or good works of man (or church, etc.) can enable him to escape from his future just and eternal punishment in hell-fire, (Mk. 9:43-48; 25:41,46; Rv. 14:11; 20:10) or merit him eternal life with an infinitely holy and just God.(Rm. 4; Titus 3:5; 2Tim. 1:19) But that instead man must humble himself before God as a sinner, unable to justify himself, and then cast all his faith on the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom God sent to be the perfect sacrifice for sin, and Savior of the world. (1Jn. 4:10,14) By so (truly) doing, one is choosing the Lord Jesus over sin, light over darkness. (Jn. 3:19-21) This faith decision is shown by being baptized in identification with the Lord Jesus.<ref>Dr. John Gill (1690-1771), Mt. 28:19</ref> (Mt. 28:19; Acts 2:41; 8:36,37; 10:47,48)

==False gospels==

The gospel of salvation has been subject to some confusion and much false teaching down through the ages, and which issue the Bible treats with utmost concern. The apostle Paul warned, "If any preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

Matthew Henry comments here, "This will not justify our thundering out anathemas against those who differ from us in minor things. It is only against those who forge a new gospel, who overturn the foundation of the covenant of grace, by setting up the works of the law in the place of Christ's righteousness..."<ref>Matthew Henry (1662 - 1714), Gal 1:6-9</ref>

"The gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24) is shown to be made clear enough that a false gospel can be discerned by way of comparison with it.<ref>Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.S.A., (1715-1832), Romans 1:6-9</ref> It is principally here that false religions are seen to be in foundational contrast to the apostolic gospel, and which manifests who or what they worship, in which, officially or by way of informal conveyance, they teach that one's own sacrifices and works (or those of their religion) can or must merit them salvation. <ref>Barnes, Rm. 3:20-25, Gal. 1:6-8</ref> The Bible also declares that man's own works, by which he supposes he is justified before the one true Holy God, are as filthy rags.<ref>Barnes, Is. 64:6</ref> (Is. 64:6) In this the Bible is particularly evidenced to most uniquely stand apart from thousands of beliefs, in that it declares that there is only One Way to be justified before God and gain eternal life with Him, that being through true faith in the risen Lord Jesus and His sinless shed blood. (Rm. 3:25) There are different degrees of critical deviations from the Biblical gospel in this regard, and in the West it is often seen that one may have an outward profession of faith in Jesus Christ but not the inward reality, not having experienced the new birth.<ref>[http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/rubornagain.html Are you born again? by J. C. RYLE - 1816-1900]</ref><ref>http://www.precious-testimonies.com/General/a-e/BornAgainIndex.htm PRECIOUS BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONIES]</ref> (Jn. 3:3-7; Acts 10:43-47; 15:7-9; Gal. 4:6)

Another false gospel, among others, found within that which is broadly called Christianity, is one that that holds that one is saved by faith, but that a Christian no longer being "under the law", (Rm. 6:14,15) means that the Christian is not bound to the moral laws of the Bible. This teaching is called antinomianism, of which there are different variations, but which basically enables "turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness",<ref>[http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/GO/gvcc/radio_trans/antinomianism.html Antinomianism, P. G. Mathew, M.A., M.Div., Th.M]</ref> (Jude 1:4) and which idea Paul, the "apostle of grace", expounded at length against, as does the Bible as whole. (Rm. cps. 6-8) Being freed from the law basically refers to the law not being a means of salvation, as well as not being bound to literal obedience as regards ceremonial aspects of it.<ref>Albert Barnes, (Mt. 5:18)</ref> (Gal. 4:10; Col. 2:16,17; Heb. 9:10)

Adam Clarke comments,

The Gospel proclaims liberty from the ceremonial law: but binds you still faster under the moral law. To be freed from the ceremonial law is the Gospel liberty; to pretend freedom from the moral law is Antinomianism.<ref>Clarke, Gal. 5:13</ref> {{See also|Leviticus 18}}

All false gospels are seen to be preaching a ''different'' Jesus, spirit, and gospel, formally or effectively. (2Cor. 11:4,13,14) Robertson comments, "It is a tragedy to see men in the livery of heaven serve the devil.<ref>Archibald Thomas Robertson, WORD PICTURES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT</ref>

==Biblical means of Salvation==

The Lord Jesus commanded His disciples that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (Lk. 24:47). And thus did the apostles, even as Paul testified "both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20:21) The Lord Jesus declared that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (Jn. 16:7-11) and which conviction is necessary for man - whom the Bible evidences as sinful and (usually) self righteous - to realize his need for mercy and salvation. God "desires truth in the inward parts", (Ps. 51:6) and a soul needs to have a heart that can honestly admit his/her own sinfulness and guilt, but which wants a new life in Christ. Unless the sinner hardens his heart (Acts 19:9), this conviction works such a humble and a contrite heart, and it is those who be of such that God saves, when they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ps. 34:18; Acts 2:37,38 16:30,31) And which is to God's credit and honor, and not to that of man. (Eph. 1:6; 2:8,9)

This conviction and drawing to Christ can only by done by God, (Jn. 6:44) but usually He works through preachers of the word to do so, and the preaching of the holy apostles manifests the Holy Spirit working this through them. (Acts 2:14-27; 13:16-41) In so doing, the manner of early Christian preachers in reaching souls was to reason "with them out of the scriptures", (Acts 17:2; 18:28; 28:23; cf. Lk. 24:25-27,44; Rm. 10:17) though if their audience was primarily scripturally illiterate [[Gentiles]], then natural revelation was invoked, (Acts 14:15-17; 17:24-28) with supernatural signs and miracles from God usually providing Divine attestation to both classes. (Acts 2:33; 3; Rm. 15:19) The Divinely inspired words of the apostles themselves were received as the word of God (1Thes. 2:13) being able to be proved by the scriptures, (Acts 17:11), which is the only tangible class of revelation which is given assurance of being wholly inspired of the one true God, (2Tim. 3:16) the finished canon of which man is not to add to, but all is tested by scripture. (Is. 8:20; 2Pet. 1:16-21) (Rev. 22:18,19) The conversion which resulted by such conviction and faith in the risen Lord Jesus and His sinless shed blood was manifested by radically changed hearts and lives, with those who were saved evangelizing as well. (Acts 2:42-47; 6:4; 1Thes, 1:8,9)

===Recognition of sin===
The Holy Spirit convicts man of the the fact that he is sinful, as by nature and in thought and action everyone does things which are contrary to the law of God, (1Jn. 3:4) and "by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Rm. 3:20) In God's eyes, stealing a paper clip is a sin, just as stealing a car is. (Ja. 2:10) While any sin is damnable,<ref>[http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/40SinsThatWillSendYouToHell.html 40 SINS THAT CAN SEND YOU TO HELL]</ref> the ultimate sin is rejecting the only One who fully lived righteously, but whom became the scapegoat for us, (Lv. 16:8,20-22; Is. 53:3-6) and whom God therefore raised from the dead (Acts 17:31) Jesus Christ being the only "name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.(Acts 4:12) Those who will not be saved, but who die in their sins will face judgment, just as their master was and will be, (Jn. 8:21; 16:11; Rv. 20:10), in contrast to those "which die in the Lord." (Rv. 14:13)

Drawing upon the [[Old Testament]], the Apostle Paul summed up the deleterious condition of man in [[Romans 1]]:
{{cquote|
:''As it is written: There is none righteous, no not one;''
:''There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God."
:''They are all gone out of the way, they have together become unprofitable, there is none that does good, no, not one."
:''Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips;''
:''whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;''
:''their feet are swift to shed blood;''
:''destruction and misery are in their way,''
:''and the way of peace they did not know.''
:''There is no fear of God before their eyes.''
:''But we know that whatever things the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law; so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be under judgment before God,''
:''because by the works of the Law none of all flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law is the knowledge of sin.''
:''But now a righteousness of God has been revealed apart from Law, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets;''
:''even the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ, toward all and upon all those who believe. For there is no difference,''
:''for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.'' (''Letter to the Romans'', 3:10-23)
}}
A holy God will not allow sin in His presence, (Hab. 1:13; Ps. 5:4; 94:20; Rv. 21:27) and on that basis alone mankind is excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven.

===Judgment: the after-effects of sin===
If the average man was to die at this moment, he would face judgment.
:''It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.'' (''Letter to the Hebrews'', 9:27)
:''Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.'' (''Gospel of John'', 5:28-29)
The man facing judgment would stand before God's throne, where his life would be reviewed.
:''And I saw the dead, the small and the great, stand before God. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.'' (''Revelation'', 20:12)
Every single moment of this man's life would be exposed, from cradle to grave. There would be nothing hidden.
:''For there is nothing hidden which shall not be revealed; nor became covered, but that it might come to the light.'' (''Gospel of Mark'', 4:22)
:''But I say to you that every idle word, whatever men may speak, they shall give account of it in the day of judgment.'' (Gospel of Matthew'', 12:36)
If the man's name was not found in the Book of Life, he is denied entry into God's Kingdom.
:''Then He also shall say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.'' (''Gospel of Matthew'', 25:41)
:''And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life.'' (Gospel of Matthew'', 25:46)
:''And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire.'' (''Revelation'', 20:15)

===Only remedy for sin===
:''For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.'' (Letter to the Romans'', 6:23)
When a crowd was being preached to by the Apostle Peter in ''Acts'', chapter 2, they were convicted and condemned of their own sin. Realizing the hopelessness of their situation in relation to God, many cried out "what can we do?"
:''Then Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ to remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."'' (''Acts of the Apostles'', 2:38)

As in the first Passover, when God ordered the Hebrews to place blood on their doors as a sign of protection from death during the last plague on Egypt (''Exodus'' 13), so God had so loved the world ''"that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life"'' (Gospel of John'', 3:16). These famous texts (among many) provide promises for lost souls to believe, who are looking for salvation. from judgment of eternal damnation to eternal life. (Jn. 5:24)

:''Because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.''
:''For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.''
:''For the Scripture says, Everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame.''
:''For there is no difference both of Jew and of Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call on Him.''
:''For everyone, "whoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved.'' (''Letter to the Romans,'' 10:9-13)

==The Eternal Question==
Standing before a crowd of sinful people, Pilate, unbeknown to him, is seen asking the eternal question, "What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?" Their response was, "Let him be crucified." In the Christian gospel this represents a question asked of every soul, with the response essentially being either that of the crowd here, who follow the "broad way" of damnation which Jesus warned of, (Mt. 7:13,14) or those, who like the contrite official in Luke 18:13, humble themselves before the true God as sinners, sincerely seeking salvation from their sins. And who therefore, by God's grace, (Acts 11:8; Rm. 5:15) trust in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, and so follow Him. This manner of salvation and the heart and faith it requires is what is seen consistently throughout the Bible, which even in its last few verses entreats "whosoever will may come" (Rv. 22:17), while warning those who alter its sacred truth, such as seek to "climb up another way". (Jn. 10:1)

==See also==
*[[Essay: The superiority of the King James Bible: Looking through!]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.campusbiblefellowship.org/cbf/gospel/gospel1.php God’s Plan of Salvation-For You!]
* [http://www.christdiedfortheungodly.com/ "Christ Died for the Ungodly": From Creation to Christ], a salvation message that begins at Creation and leads to Christ
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Who can be saved? Who can not be saved?]
[[Category: Christianity]]

Russia

2013-03-16T12:49:31Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

{{Country
|name =''Российская Федерация Rossiyskaya Federatsiya''
|map =Russia rel94.jpg
|map2 =Russia location.png
|flag =Flag of Russia.png
|arms =Arms of the Russian Federation.png
|capital =Moscow
|capital-raw =
|government =Semi-Presidential Federal republic
|government-raw =
|language =Russian language
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Vladimir Putin
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Dmitry Medvedev
|pm-raw =
|area =6,592,800 sq mi
|pop =138,739,000 (2011)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =
|gdp-year =$2.3 trillion (2009)
|gdp-pc =$15,100 (2009 est.) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html
|currency =ruble
|idd =
|tld =
}}

'''Russia''' (formally the '''Russian Federation''' (Russian: Российская Федерация, ''Rossiyskaya Federatsiya''), is the largest country by area (17,075,200 square kilometers) and has the sixth largest population spanning from Eastern Europe to Northern Asia. Its history stretches back over a thousand years, with rule by the Czars until 1917, and by the Communists, 1918-1991 and was the largest constituent of the [[Soviet Union]]. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the nation became known as the Russian Federation. Russia had an extensive empire built up over hundreds of years, almost all of which broke away in 1991. The capital is [[Moscow]].

Russia is theoretically a federation of constituent governments. In reality, it has a highly centralized government, largely due to President [[Vladimir Putin]]. Putin has nationalized the nation's oil and gas companies, seized foreign investments, imprisoned top businessmen, and brought an autocratic, anti-democratic style that resembles--in milder form--the czars and Soviets. Thanks to oil revenue, it has the money to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, which is mildly hostile to the United States and to [[NATO]].
==Geography==
[[File:Saint Petersburg Russia.jpg|thumb|Saint Petersburg.]]
*Area: 17 million sq. km. (6.5 million sq. mi.); about 1.8 times the size of the United States.
*Cities: Capital--Moscow (pop. 8.3 million). Other cities--St. Petersburg (4.6 million), Novosibirsk (1.4 million), Nizhniy Novgorod (1.3 million). Numerous other cities over 1 million inhabitants.
*Terrain: Broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia; uplands and mountains (Caucasus range) along southern borders.
*Climate: Huge variation from humid sub-tropical in Krasnodar krai, to desert/semi-desert in the Altai republic, and arctic tundra in north eastern Siberia, which is one of the coldest areas on the planet.

==Religion==
[[File:Cathedral of Christ the Savior.jpg|thumb|left|Cathedral of Christ the Savior.]]
In practice, only a minority of citizens actively participated in any religion. Many who identified themselves as members of a religious group participated in religious life rarely or not at all. There is no one set of reliable statistics that breaks down the population by denomination, and the statistics below are compiled from government, polling, and religious group sources.<ref> According to [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108468.htm U.S. State Department, "International Religious Freedom Report 2008"]</ref>

Approximately 100 million citizens are Russian Orthodox. Muslims, with a population estimated between 14 million and 23 million, form the largest religious minority. The majority of Muslims live in the Volga-Ural region and the North Caucasus, although Moscow, St. Petersburg, and parts of Siberia also have sizable Muslim populations. There are an estimated one million Buddhists, the majority of whom live in the traditionally Buddhist regions of Buryatiya, Tuva, and Kalmykiya. According to the NGO Slavic Center for Law and Justice, Protestants make up the second largest group of Christian believers, with 3,500 registered organizations and more than 2 million followers. The Roman Catholic Church estimated that there are 600,000 Catholics, most of whom are not ethnic Russians. There are an estimated 250,000 Jews, the majority of whom live in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In some areas, such as Yakutiya and Chukotka, pantheistic and nature-based religions are practiced independently or alongside other religions.

According to the annual report from the Human Rights Ombudsman, the Ministry of Justice had registered 21,963 religious organizations as of January 1, 2008, 993 fewer than January 2006. The registered religious groups (with the number of registered organizations) include Russian Orthodox (12,586), Muslim (3,815), Protestant (several denominations totaling 3,410), Jehovah's Witnesses (402), Jewish (286), Orthodox Old Believers (283), Roman Catholic (240), Buddhist (200), and other denominations.

===Religion in schools===
The federal Government does not require religious instruction in schools, but it continues to allow public use of school buildings after hours for the ROC to provide religious instruction on a voluntary basis. Several regions offer a course on Orthodox Christianity in public schools, and five oblasts or regions (Kaluga, Tver, Bryansk, Smolensk, and Voronezh) have a mandatory class on the "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture." Students may avoid the Belgorod Oblast voluntary course only if their parents provide and pay for an alternative course. The course is offered as an elective in several other regions. In regions where the class is not mandatory, in practice students may be compelled to take it where schools do not provide alternatives.

Some regions offer a class on "History of Religion," a proposal that the Minister of Education had suggested but did not introduce nationally. Although the Ministry of Education rejected continued publication and dissemination of a controversial textbook that detailed Orthodox Christianity's contribution to the country's culture, some schools continued to use the text. The textbook contained descriptions of some religious groups that members of those groups found objectionable. The Congress of Religious Associations in the Tyumen region appealed to the Governor and regional department of education to allow input from other religious groups into the religious culture curriculum, claiming that the course currently contains only the viewpoint of the ROC.

===Discrimination===
[[File:Roma children in Russia.jpg|thumb|360px|Roma children in Russia.]]
The regions of Kabardino-Balkariya and Dagestan have laws banning extremist Islamic "Wahhabism," but there were no reports that authorities invoked these laws to deny registration to Muslim groups. The former president of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic ordered the closure of six of seven mosques in Nalchik, the region's capital, in 2004. One was reopened in 2007, while the others remained closed and were suffering from disrepair and vandalism.

The 2002 Law on Extremism, amended in July 2006, can affect religious groups, particularly Muslim groups, by criminalizing a broad spectrum of speech and activities.

Many nontraditional denominations frequently complained that they were unable to obtain venues for worship. Because they were small and often newly established, they typically lacked the necessary resources to buy or rent facilities on the open market and must rely on government assistance. Because they are nontraditional, they frequently met opposition from the traditional communities and often were unable to find government officials who were willing to assist them in renting state-owned property. There were multiple reports of religious organizations who were not allowed to renew leases on public or private buildings. Increased competition for space in a growing economy and increasing real estate prices led many owners (public and private) to lease property to higher paying tenants, and in some cases, religious groups were refused outright at any price. Representatives of numerous Protestant groups spoke about increasing difficulty in extending existing leases or signing new leases for worship premises, the majority of which are still state-controlled. Some religious groups, particularly Jehovah's Witnesses, but also the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Pentecostal congregations, and the Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, reported that local authorities in recent years denied them permission to acquire land on which to construct places of worship. Authorities continued to deny construction permits to several groups.

The Word of Life Christian Church in Kaluga region continued to face great difficulties trying to build its church. In June 2007 a court ruled in favor of the church and invalidated the Kaluga's mayoral decree to confiscate the church's property. In October 2007 the court denied the city's appeal. Local authorities, however, continued to harass the church. On July 4, 2007, the police seized a computer and documents, reportedly to find information on the church's secondary school. After seizing a list of the church's members, the police called the members and summoned them to the prosecutor's office for questioning about the school.

The Sochi mayor's office continued to deny the Muslim community authorization to build a new mosque; the current premises are inadequate to accommodate the membership. Officials allotted land several times but never transferred it to the Muslim community. According to the regional government, authorities can allocate land for a mosque only after a public opinion survey indicates that the proposed location would not cause conflict.

Religious news sources claimed that authorities acting under the influence of the ROC sometimes prevented Orthodox churches not belonging to the ROC, including the True Orthodox, from obtaining or maintaining buildings for worship.

After the 1997 Law changed the visa regime for religious and other foreign workers, nontraditional religious groups reported problems receiving long-term visas. In October 2007 the Government introduced new visa rules that allow foreigners (including religious workers) with business or humanitarian visas to spend only 90 of every 180 days in the country. According to religious experts, these rules were not aimed at religious workers, but the effect has been to severely restrict religious groups that rely upon foreign religious workers. The Roman Catholic Church, which relies almost exclusively on priests from outside the country, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with more than four hundred foreign missionaries, have been particularly hard hit by this provision. While foreign religious workers seem able to acquire visas with few problems, the 90-day limit on their stay in the country limits their ability to work and significantly increases their expenses. Although registered religious organizations have the option to sponsor foreign workers and missionaries on work visas (which do not have 90-day or 180-day limits), this is a complicated process that places significant financial and administrative burdens on the organizations.

Many religious groups were unable to regain property confiscated in the Soviet era and acquire new property. The Moscow-based SOVA Center said the property restitution problem was most prevalent among Muslim and Protestant groups.

==Demography==
[[File:Collecting the census in Russia.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Collecting the census.]]
In a major [[demography|demographic]] catastrophe, population indicators in Russia dramatically worsened after 1990: the number of [[death]]s exceeds the number of [[birth]]s, [[life expectancy]] is drastically decreasing, the number of [[suicide]]s has increased, and there are 240 abortions per 100 live births. Every year since 1992 the country has lost 400,000 to 650,000 population and the current total of 142 million is [[projection|projected]] to fall to 100 million by 2050.

In the 1990s, life expectancy in Russia fell an astonishing six years. [[Statistical analysis]] indicates that one-quarter of the increase in [[mortality]] was due to an increase in [[alcohol consumption]] and one-quarter was a consequence of [[stress]] due to economic uncertainty.<ref>Elizabeth Brainerd, and David M. Cutler, "Autopsy On An Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union." ''Journal Of Economic Perspectives'' 2005 19(1): 107-130. Issn: 0895-3309 Fulltext: in Ebsco </ref>

Russia's population of 141.4 million (2007) is falling. Lower birth rates and higher death rates have reduced Russia's population at a nearly 0.5% annual rate since the early 1990s. Russia is one of few countries with a declining population (although birth rates in many developed countries have dropped below the long-term population replacement). Population decline is particularly drastic in Russia due to higher death rates, especially among working-age males. Cardiovascular disease, cancer, traffic injuries, suicide, alcohol poisoning, and violence are major causes of death. In a June 2006 speech to the Russian National Security Council, President Putin declared that Russia is facing a demographic crisis and called for measures to improve birth and mortality rates and increase population through immigration, primarily the return of Russian-speaking foreigners.

====HIV/AIDS====
Russia and Ukraine are said to have the highest growth rates of HIV infection in the world. In Russia HIV seems to be transmitted mostly by intravenous drug users sharing needles, although data is very uncertain. Data from the Federal AIDS Center shows that the number of registered cases is doubling every 12 months and is currently at 300,000 persons. When projections are made which allow for people in high-risk groups who have not been tested for the disease, estimates of the actual number of HIV-infected persons are approximately 3 million. The high growth rate of AIDS cases, if unchecked, will have negative economic consequences. Investment will suffer from the diversion of private and government funds to AIDS treatment. The effect on the labor force may be acute since about 80% of infected individuals in Russia are under 30 years of age.

===Ethnicity===
[[File:Novosibirsk Karimov - Cossacks.jpg|left|140px]]
Most of the roughly 141 million Russians derive from the Eastern Slavic family of peoples, whose original homeland was probably present-day Poland. Russian is the official language of Russia and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the language of such giants of world literature as [[Pushkin]], [[Tolstoy]], [[Dostoevsky]], [[Chekhov]], [[Pasternak]], and [[Solzhenitsyn]].

 

===Education===
[[Image:Russian band in Pushkin.jpg|thumb|220px|Russian band in Pushkin.]]
Russia's educational system has produced nearly 100% literacy. About 3 million students attend Russia's 519 institutions of higher education and 48 universities, but continued reform is critical to producing students with skills to adapt to a market economy. Because great emphasis is placed on science and technology in education, Russian medical, mathematical, scientific, and space and aviation research is still generally of a high order. The number of doctors in relation to the population is high by American standards, although medical care in Russia, even in major cities, is generally far below Western standards. The unraveling of the Soviet state in its last decades and the physical and psychological traumas of transition during the 1990s resulted in a steady decline in the health of the Russian people. Currently Russia faces a demographic crisis as births lag far behind deaths. While its population is aging, skyrocketing deaths of working-age males due to cardiovascular disease is a major cause of Russia's demographic woes. A rapid increase in HIV/AIDS infections and tuberculosis compounds the problem. In 2007, life expectancy at birth was 59 for men and 73 for women. The large annual excess of deaths over births is expected to cut Russia's population by 30% over the next 50 years.

===Labor force===
[[File:Russian unemployment.jpg|thumb|Russian unemployment, 2009.]]
The Russian labor force is undergoing tremendous changes. Although well educated and skilled, it is largely mismatched to the rapidly changing needs of the Russian economy. Official unemployment has shrunken in recent years to 6.9%, and labor shortages have started to appear in some high-skilled job markets. Nonetheless, pockets of high unemployment remain and many Russian workers are underemployed. Unemployment is highest among women and young people. Following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic dislocation it engendered, the standard of living fell dramatically. However, real disposable incomes have doubled since 1999, and experts estimate that the middle class ranges from one-fifth to one-third of the population. In 2006, 15.8% of the population lived below the subsistence level, in contrast to 38.1% in 1998.

 

===Statistics===
*Population (2007 est.): 141.4 million.
*Annual growth rate (2007 est.): -0.484% (population declining).
*Ethnic groups: Russian 79.8%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 2%, other 14.4%.
*Religion: Russian Orthodox, Islam, Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestant, Buddhist, other.
*Language: Russian (official); more than 140 other languages and dialects.
*Education (total pop.): Literacy--99.4%.
*Health: Life expectancy (2007 est.)--59.12 yrs. men, 73.03 yrs. women.
*Work force (73.88 million) (2006 est.): Production and economic services--84%; government--16%.

==Cities==
[[Moscow]] is Russia's capital and largest city (population 8.3 million). [[Moscow]] is also increasingly important as an economic and business center; it has become Russia's principal magnet for foreign investment and business presence. Its cultural tradition is rich, and there are many museums devoted to art, literature, music, dance, history, and science, as well as hundreds of churches and dozens of notable [[cathedral]]s.

[[Image:Traffic in Moscow.jpg|thumb|240px|Traffic in Moscow.]]
The second-largest city in Russia is [[St. Petersburg]] (formerly '''Leningrad'''), which was established by [[Tsar]] [[Peter the Great]] in 1703 to be the capital of the Russian Empire as part of his Western-looking reforms. The city was called Petrograd during [[World War I]] and Leningrad after 1924. In 1991, as the result of a city referendum, it was renamed St. Petersburg. Under the tsars, the city was Russia's cultural, intellectual, commercial, financial, and industrial center. After [[Lenin]] moved the capital back to [[Moscow]] in 1918, the city's political significance declined, but it remained a cultural, scientific, and military-industrial center. The Hermitage, formerly the Winter Palace of the tsars, is one of the world's great fine arts museums.

Russia has an area of about 17 million square kilometers (6.5 million sq. mi.); in geographic terms, this makes Russia the largest country in the world by more than 2.5 million square miles. But with a population density of about 22 persons per square mile (9 per sq. km.), it is sparsely populated, and most of its residents live in urban areas.

==Government and Political Conditions==
[[File:Duma Parliament building Moscow Russia.jpg|thumb|340px|Duma Parliament building, Moscow.]]
In the political system established by the 1993 [[constitution]], the [[president]] wields considerable executive power. There is no vice president, and the legislative branch is far weaker than the executive. The bicameral legislature consists of the lower house (State Duma) and the upper house (the Federation Council). The president nominates the highest state officials, including the [[prime minister]], who must be approved by the Duma. The [[president]] can pass decrees without consent from the [[Duma]]. He also is head of the armed forces and of the Security Council.

Duma elections were held most recently on December 7, 2003, and presidential elections on March 14, 2004. The pro-government party, United Russia, won close to half of the seats in the Duma. Combined with its allies, United Russia commands a two-thirds majority. The OSCE judged the Duma elections as failing to meet international standards for fairness, due largely to extensive slanted media bias in the campaign. [[Vladimir Putin]] was re-elected to a second four-year term with 71% of the vote in March 2004. The Russian constitution does not allow presidents to serve more than two consecutive terms. Next elections for the Duma occur in December 2007, and for President in March 2008.

Russia is a federation, but the precise distribution of powers between the central government and the regional and local authorities is still evolving. The Russian Federation consists of 89 regional administrative units, including two federal cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg. The constitution explicitly defines the federal government's exclusive powers, but it also describes most key regional issues as the joint responsibility of the federal government and the regional administrative units. In 2000, President Putin grouped the regions into seven federal districts, with presidential appointees established in Moscow and six provincial capitals. In March 2004, the Constitution was amended to permit the merger of some regional administrative units. A law enacted in December 2004 eliminated the direct election of the country's regional leaders. Governors are now nominated by the president and subject to confirmation by regional legislatures.

===Judicial System===
The Russian [[judicial system]] consists of the Constitutional Court, courts of [[general jurisdiction]], military courts, and arbitrage courts (which hear commercial disputes). The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is a court of limited subject matter jurisdiction. The 1993 constitution empowers the Constitutional Court to arbitrate disputes between the executive and legislative branches and between Moscow and the regional and local governments. The court also is authorized to rule on violations of constitutional rights, to examine appeals from various bodies, and to participate in impeachment proceedings against the president. The July 1994 Law on the Constitutional Court prohibits the court from examining cases on its own initiative and limits the scope of issues the court can hear. The system of general jurisdiction courts includes the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, regional level courts, district level courts and justices of the peace.

The Duma passed a Criminal Procedure Code and other judicial reforms during its 2001 session. These reforms help make the Russian judicial system more compatible with its Western counterparts and are seen by most as an accomplishment in human rights. The reforms have reintroduced jury [[trials]] in certain [[criminal]] cases and created a more adversarial system of criminal trials that protect the rights of defendants more adequately. In 2002, the introduction of the new code led to significant reductions in time spent in detention for new detainees, and the number of suspects placed in pretrial detention declined by 30%. Another significant advance in the new Code is the transfer from the Procuracy to the courts of the authority to issue search and arrest warrants. There are rising concerns, however, that prosecutors have selectively targeted individuals for political reasons, as in the prosecution of Yukos Oil CEO Mikhail Khodorkovskiy.

In spite of the general tendency to increase judicial [[independence]] (for example, by recent considerable salary raise to judges), many judges still see their role not as of impartial and independent arbiters, but as of government officials protecting state interests. See below for more information on the commercial court/business law.

===Human Rights===
Russia is no longer Communist, but it is increasingly an authoritarian state where democracy is weak. It has an increasingly centralized political system, with power concentrated in the hands of [[Vladimir Putin]] and his choices for top offices. International observers concluded that the December 2007 State Duma election (for parliament) was not fair, and neither was the March 2, 2008, election for president.
[[Image:Human Rights.JPG|left]]
[[Human rights]] problems and abuses continued in 2008, though at a far lower level than the days of Communism (which ended in 1991). Putin's human rights record remained poor in the North Caucasus, where governments in Ingushetiya and Dagestan faced increased opposition from disaffected social groups and insurgencies, and the Chechen government forcibly reined in the Islamist insurgency that replaced the separatist insurgency as the main source of conflict. Russian security forces engaged in killings, torture, abuse, violence, and other brutal or humiliating treatment.

Russia's [[human rights]] record remains uneven and has worsened in some areas in recent years. Despite significant improvements in conditions following the end of the Soviet Union, problem areas remain. In particular, the Russian Government's policy in Chechnya has been a cause for international concern. Although the government has made progress in recognizing the legitimacy of international human rights standards, the institutionalization of procedures to safeguard these rights has lagged. There are, however, some indications that the law is becoming an increasingly important tool for those seeking to protect [[human]] rights.

Some specific areas of human rights violations of the Soviet era continued on into the late 1990's and even have been reported up to 2002.
These involved experimentation on humans and the use of imported foreign forced labor, particularly from North Korea, to work in forestry in gulag type camps of Siberia (for Russian and other newspaper accounts, see [[KAL 007 Survivors and Gulags of Russia]]). Experimentation on humans have been noted by Russian rights activists in connection with certain medical facilities. The Serbsky Institute and Mental Hospital figuring in as a center for mind altering experiments receives startling confirmation from Emilia Cherkover, former Deputy of the Zelenograd Soviet and member of the Russian Federation Human Rights Commission. Cherkover maintains that, along with Vladivostok and Moscow prisons and the mental hospital in Oryal, microwave (psychotronic and electromagnetic application) experiments had been conducted on humans between 1989 and 1990 at the Serbsky Institute in Moscow (see [[The Stavitski Account]]).

<blockquote>
Journalist Yury Vorobyovsky has been investigating the top secret program of "psychotronic" brainwashing techniques developed by the KGB and the Ministry for three years. He notes Emilia Cherkova's claim that there are over a million victims. Her group, Ecology and Living Environment had filed damages against the Federal Security Service (FSB). The newspaper reports, "there is strong evidence that some kind of psychotronic warfare program did exist in the Soviet period, and that the technology may be falling into the wrong hands" (From Moscow Times, 7-11-95).
</blockquote>
====Prisons====
The judiciary is often subject to manipulation by political authorities and is plagued by large case backlogs and trial delays. Lengthy pretrial detention remains a serious problem. Russia has one of the highest [[prison]] population rates in the world, at 685 per 100,000. There are credible reports of beating and torture of inmates and detainees by law enforcement and correctional officials. Prison conditions fall well below international standards. In 2001, President Putin pronounced a moratorium on the death penalty. There are reports that the Russian Government might still be violating promises they made upon entering the European Council, especially in terms of prison control and conditions.
====Chechnya====
[[File:Evstafiev palace gunman Chechnya.jpg|thumb|280px|Government palace building in Grozny, Chechnya.]]
[[Chechnya]] has seen continuing violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed by Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen forces. Chechen rebels also have committed abuses as well as acts of terrorism. In [[Chechnya]], Ingushetiya, and Dagestan, security forces were involved in unlawful killings and politically motivated kidnappings. Chechen President Kadyrov continued his repressive control as federal forces withdrew. Federal and local security forces in Chechnya targeted families of suspected insurgents with impunity, and Kadyrov's private militia allegedly engaged in kidnapping and torture.<ref>see [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eur/119101.htm Country Report 2008] </ref>

Human rights groups have criticized Russian officials concerning cases of Chechens disappearing while in custody. Chechen rebels have similarly been responsible for politically motivated disappearances. Russian authorities have introduced some improvements, including better access to complaint mechanisms, the formal opening of investigations in most cases, and the introduction of two decrees requiring the presence of civilian investigators and other nonmilitary personnel during all large-scale military operations and targeted search and seizure operations. Human rights groups welcome these changes but claim that most abuses remain uninvestigated and unpunished and may be spreading more broadly in the North Caucasus.

====Religion - Human rights====
The Russian constitution provides for freedom of religion and the equality of all religions before the law, as well as the separation of church and state. Although Jews and Muslims continue to encounter prejudice and societal discrimination, they have not been inhibited by the government in the free practice of their religion. High-ranking federal officials have condemned anti-Semitic hate crimes, but law enforcement bodies have not always effectively prosecuted those responsible. The influx of foreign missionaries has led to pressure by groups in Russia, specifically nationalists and the Russian Orthodox Church, to limit the activities of these "nontraditional" religious groups. In response, the Duma passed a restrictive and potentially discriminatory law on religion in October 1997. The law is complex, with many ambiguous and contradictory provisions. The law's most controversial provisions distinguish between religious "groups" and "organizations" and introduce a 15-year rule, which allows groups that have been in existence for 15 years or longer to obtain accredited status. Senior Russian officials have pledged to implement the 1997 law on religion in a manner that is not in conflict with Russia's international human rights obligations. Some local officials, however, have used the law as a pretext to restrict religious liberty.

====Media====
[[File:Russia press cartoon Russian journalists.jpg|thumb|280px|Press cartoon - Russian journalists.]]
Pressure from Putin's regime weakened freedom of expression and media independence, particularly of the major television networks. Five journalists were assassinated in 2008. As some print and Internet media reflected a widening range of views, the government restricted media freedom through direct ownership of media outlets, pressuring the owners of major media outlets to abstain from critical coverage, and harassing and intimidating journalists into practicing self-censorship. Local governments limited freedom of assembly, and police sometimes used violence to prevent groups from engaging in peaceful protest. The government limited freedom of association. The government restricted religious groups in some regions, and there were incidents of societal discrimination, harassment, and violence against religious minorities, including anti-Semitism.<ref>see [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eur/119101.htm Country Report 2008] </ref>

Government pressure continued to weaken freedom of expression and the independence and freedom of some media, particularly major national television networks and regional electronic media outlets. A government decision resulted in the elimination of the last major non-state television network in 2003. National press is also increasingly in government hands or owned by government officials, narrowing the scope of opinion available. Self-censorship is a growing press problem. Unsolved murders of journalists, including the killing of respected investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya in October 2006, have caused significant international concern and increased pressure on journalists to avoid subjects considered sensitive. In August 2007, authorities arrested several suspects in connection with the Politkovksaya case.

====Civil Society====
Enactment of a new law on foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 2006 was criticized in many quarters as a device to control [[civil society]], that is, private organizations. Implementing regulations appear to impose onerous paperwork reporting burdens on NGOs that could be used to limit or even suppress some of them. This law was used to shut down an NGO for the first time in January 2007 on the basis of extremism charges; however, most foreign NGOs have successfully re-registered. Domestic NGOs were not required to re-register, but are required to meeting new reporting requirements.

===Government Spending/Taxation===
[[Image:Putin..jpg|left|260px|Vladimir Putin.]]
The Russian federal budget has run growing surpluses since 2001, as the government has taxed and saved much of the rapidly increasing oil revenues. According to preliminary figures, the 2006 budget surplus was 7.4% of GDP on a cash basis. Although there are strong pressures to relax spending ahead of elections, the government has loosened its spending gradually, as the economy is running at near capacity and there are dangers of increasing inflation and rapid exchange rate appreciation. Spending increases to date have mostly been for increased salaries of government employees and pensions, but some money is also being dedicated to special investment funds and tax breaks to develop new industries in special economic zones. The government overhauled its tax system for both corporations and individuals in 2000-01, introducing a 13% flat tax for individuals and a unified tax for corporations, which improved overall collection. Business has put pressure on the government to reduce value added taxes (VAT) on oil and gas, but the government has postponed this discussion. Tax enforcement of disputes, particularly following the Yukos case, continues to be uneven and unpredictable.

A major focus of increased government spending has been the military, with large increases being spent on overhauling and updating equipment, as well as increasing salaries of military personnel, though a huge backlog of problems remain from the chaotic Yeltsin era and almost two decades of chronic underinvestment.

Much needed investment in national infrastructure, including railways and waterways, which are much more important in transportation in Russia than in the US and Europe has been insignificant, leading to bottlenecks that hamper growth and development. Telecoms and electricity production and distribution also remain run-down and outdated from the post-Soviet collapse. As a result of this, Russia remains dependent on energy exports for income, with the domestic economy effectively held back by capacity restraints or neglected facilities, a fact which has left Russia vulnerable to a collapse in fuel prices, such as that experienced at the beginning the global financial crisis, when crude oil prices dropped from over $100 per barrel to less than $60. Currently, Russian development of railways and highways in terms of new/renewed miles of route lies at around 1/10 that of China, despite having a much larger landmass.

==Foreign Relations==
In the years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia took important steps to become a full partner in the world's principal political groupings. On December 27, 1991, Russia assumed the permanent UN Security Council seat formerly held by the Soviet Union. Russia also is a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC). Russia and the European Union (EU) signed a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. It signed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Partnership for Peace initiative in 1994. The NATO-Russia Founding Act in 1997 and the NATO-Russia Council superseded that in 2002. Russia acquiesced (despite misgivings) in enlargement of NATO by members first of the former [[Warsaw Pact]] and most recently by the Baltic states that had been forcibly integrated into the Soviet Union.

Over the past several years Russia has increased its international profile, played an increasing role in regional issues, and been more assertive in dealing with its neighbors. The rise in energy prices has given it leverage over countries which are dependent on Russian sources. Russia continues to support separatist regimes in Georgia and Moldova.

===Relations with the United States===
[[File:Anna Chapman Russian.jpg|thumb|left|120px|Anna Chapman.]]
The United States and Russia share common interests on a broad range of issues, including counterterrorism and the drastic reduction of our strategic arsenals. Russia shares our basic goal of stemming the [[proliferation]] of [[weapons of mass destruction]] and the means to deliver them. We are working with Russia to compel Iran to bring its nuclear programs into compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rules and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737. On North Korea, Russia is a participant in the Six-Party Talks aimed at the complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear program. Russia also takes part in the Middle East Peace Process "Quartet" (along with the UN and the EU). Russia now interacts with NATO members as an equal through the NATO-Russia Council but without veto power over NATO decisions. During the past several years, Russia has intensified its efforts to combat trafficking in persons.

{{Clear}}

==Defense==
Russia's efforts to transform its Soviet-legacy military into a smaller, lighter and more mobile force continue to be hampered by an ossified military leadership, discipline problems and human rights violations, limited funding and demographics. Recent steps by the Government of Russia suggest a desire to reform. There has been an increased emphasis on practical training, and the government is introducing bills to improve the organization of the military.
[[Image:Cannon Russia.jpg|left|300px]]
Despite large increases in the budget, defense spending is still unable to sustain Russia's large military. Current troop strength, estimated at 1.1 million, is large in comparison to Russia's GDP and military budget, which continues to make the process of transformation to a professional army difficult. This is both the result of the Soviet legacy and military thinking, and Russian geography, which demands a sizable force simply to patrol and maintain normal defensive readiness across Russia's huge, remote and sparsely populated territory. Furthermore, unrest in Russia's souther regions demands a substantial military force at a high level of readiness.

Russian military salaries are low. Though, the army provides all necessities, the quality of accommodation is low, though the situation has improved considerably since the Yeltsin era when the military establishment almost totally collapsed, and some soldiers actually starved when provisions to remote bases went undelivered for months on end. Problems with both discipline and brutal hazing remain common, however. HIV infection rates in the Russian army are estimated to be between two to five times higher than in the general population, and tuberculosis is a persistent problem both in and outside the military, affecting the fitness of recruits.
[[File:SU-24.jpg|thumb|Bomber jet Su-24.]]
Although the available manpower (males 15-49) for the Russian Armed Forces was projected at 35.2 million in 2005, only approximately 11% of eligible males do military service. Moreover, military officials complain that new recruit cohorts are plagued by increasing incidences of poor education, communicable diseases and criminality.

The Russian Government has stated a desire to convert to a professional army, but implementation has been delayed repeatedly. Current plans envision a transition to a mixed force, in which professional soldiers fill the ranks of select units and conscription is gradually phased out. Some officials have talked of developing a non-commissioned officer corps to lead the professional army, but the military has yet to make any concrete decisions, due to internal political considerations and a backlog of other issues soaking up increased funding.

Russia continues to maintain a sizable strategic nuclear force equipped with global reach, with land, sea and air based nuclear launch facilities, though maintenance issues continue to affect the readiness of the system due to a flight of skilled personnel from the military, and financial and organization pressures in the post-Soviet era. For this reason, Russia has sought a renewed START treaty with the United States for a mutual reduction of strategic nuclear forces. This agreement was reached between Presidents Obama and Medvedev in April 2010.

==Economy==
[[Image:Historic Centre of St. Petersburg.jpg|thumb|260px|Historic Center of St. Petersburg.]]
At the end of March, 2009, the World Bank issued a grim forecast of the Russian Economy, projecting a 4.5% decline in the economy in 2009 and warning that 5.8 million Russians would fall into poverty unless the government shifts spending to poor families. It praised the government’s $85 billion anticrisis program, which stabilized Russia’s banks and prevented financial panic. But it said too little had gone to households — a hazard in a society where 37 million people, a quarter of the population, lives near the poverty line.<ref> Ellen Berry, "World Bank Grim on Russian Economy," [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/world/europe/31russia.html?ref=world ''New York Times'' Mar. 30, 2009]</ref>

The Russian economy underwent tremendous stress in the 1990s as it moved from a centrally planned economy to a free market system. Difficulties in implementing fiscal reforms aimed at raising government revenues and a dependence on short-term borrowing to finance budget deficits led to a serious financial crisis in 1998. Lower prices for Russia's major export earners (oil and minerals) and a loss of investor confidence due to the Asian financial crisis exacerbated financial problems. The result was a rapid and steep decline (60%) in the value of the ruble, flight of foreign investment, delayed payments on sovereign and private debts, a breakdown of commercial transactions through the banking system, and the threat of runaway inflation.

Still, Russia weathered the crisis well. In the 8 years following the financial crisis, GDP growth averaged just under 7% due to a devalued ruble, implementation of key economic reforms (tax, banking, labor and land codes), tight fiscal policy, and favorable commodities prices. Household consumption and fixed capital investments have both grown by about 10 percent per year since 1999 and have replaced net exports as the main drivers of demand growth. Inflation and exchange rates have stabilized due to a prudent fiscal policy (Russia has run a budget surplus since 2003). The government created a stabilization/rainy day fund ($127 billion in mid-2007), and has the third-largest foreign exchange reserves in the world (close to $420 billion in mid-2007) which should shelter it from commodity price shocks.

Russia's balance of payments moves from strength to strength. The current account balance grew from $58.6 billion in 2004 to $95.3 billion in 2006, almost entirely due to oil price increases. The capital account turned positive in 2006, with net inflow of $6.1 billion. In addition, net private capital flows in 2006 increased significantly to $40.9 billion, compared to an inflow of $0.1 billion in 2005 due to liberalization of the capital account in mid-2006. Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows dramatically improved in 2006 to an estimated $31 billion (inflows totaled $15.4 billion and $14.6 billion in 2004 and 2005, respectively). As of July 1, 2006, the ruble is convertible for both current and capital transactions. Russia prepaid its entire Soviet-era Paris Club debt of $22 billion in late 2006, pushing Russia's sovereign foreign debt down to $45 billion at the end of 2006, or about 5 percent of GDP. Russia's total public and private foreign debt at the end of 2006 was $310 billion, or 31 percent of GDP. Such a dramatic reversal to the macroeconomic situation is truly remarkable. Russia currently has a sovereign investment-grade rating from Standard and Poor's of BBB+.
[[File:Znamensk Russia.jpg|thumb|280px|left|Street in Znamensk.]]
Although the economy has begun to diversify, the government budget remains dependent on oil and gas revenues; consumption and investment are, however, contributing to an increasing share to GDP growth. While currently sheltered from external price shocks, the government realizes the need to intensify reforms that will promote new investment in aging infrastructure and continued productivity gains. The government believes it can do this by creating state-sponsored investment funds, special economic zones, and by exercising control of strategic enterprises (a draft law defining strategic sectors was submitted to the Duma in August 2007). Although investors are returning to Russia, excessive bureaucracy, corruption, insufficient and insufficiently enforced legislation, selective interpretation of laws (particularly tax laws), unclear limits and conditions on foreign investment, obsolete infrastructure, and stalled economic reforms still remain a problem. In 2005, the government announced reform programs in four priority areas (health, education, housing, and agriculture), but further work is needed on them as well as in financial regulation, civil service reform, and reform of government monopolies, such as railroads, gas, and electricity.
*GDP (2006): $989 billion.
*Growth rate (2006): 6.7%.
*Natural resources: Petroleum, natural gas, timber, furs, precious and nonferrous metals.
*Agriculture: Products--Grain, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, meat, dairy products.
*Industry: Types--Complete range of manufactures: automobiles, trucks, trains, agricultural equipment, advanced aircraft, aerospace, machine and equipment products; mining and extractive industry; medical and scientific instruments; construction equipment.
*Trade (2006): Exports--$304 billion: petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, woods and wood products, metals, chemicals. Major markets--EU, CIS, China, Japan. Imports--$165 billion: machinery and equipment, chemicals, consumer goods, medicines, meat, sugar, semi-finished metal products. Major partners--EU, U.S., NIS, Japan, China. U.S. exports--$4.7 billion. Principal U.S. exports (2006)--oil/gas equipment, meat, inorganic chemicals, tobacco, aircraft, medical equipment, autos/parts. U.S. imports--$19.8 billion. Principal U.S. imports (2006)--oil, aluminum, chemicals, platinum, iron/steel, fish and crustaceans, nickel, wood, and copper.

====Gross Domestic Product====
A strong expansion in domestic demand continues to drive GDP growth, despite a slowdown in manufacturing. GDP growth and industrial production for 2006 were 6.7% and 4.8%, respectively, relative to 6.4% and 5.7% in 2005. GDP growth is currently derived from non-tradable sectors, but investment remains concentrated in tradables (oil and gas). Construction was the fastest growing sector of the economy, expanding by 14% in 2006. The main private sector services--wholesale & retail trade, banking & insurance, and transportation & communications--showed strong growth of about 10%. In contrast, public sector services--education, health care, and public administration--lagged behind with only 2-4% growth in 2006. Recent productivity growth has still been strong in some parts of domestic manufacturing. Real disposable incomes grew by 10.2% in 2006, spurring considerable growth in private consumption.

====Monetary Policy====
Large balance of payments surpluses have complicated monetary policy for Russia. The Central Bank has followed a policy of managed appreciation to ease the impact on domestic producers and has sterilized capital inflows with its large budget surpluses. However, the Central Bank also has been buying back dollars, pumping additional ruble liquidity into the system. Given the rising demand for money, this has softened the inflationary impact, but these policy choices have complicated the government's efforts to lower inflation to the single digits. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation was 9% in 2006 and 10.9% in 2005, having steadily decreased from 20.2% in 2000, due primarily to prudent fiscal policy and in 2006 lower world oil prices.

====Commercial Law====
Russia has a body of conflicting, overlapping and rapidly changing laws, decrees and regulations, which has resulted in an ad hoc and unpredictable approach to doing business. In this environment, negotiations and contracts from commercial transactions are complex and protracted. Uneven implementation of laws creates further complications. Regional and local courts are often subject to political pressure, and corruption is widespread. However, more and more small and medium businesses in recent years have reported fewer difficulties in this regard, especially in the Moscow region. In addition, Russian businesses are increasingly turning to the courts to resolve disputes. Russia's WTO accession process is also helping to bring the country's legal and regulatory regime in line with internationally accepted practices.

====Natural Resources====
The mineral-packed Ural Mountains and the vast oil, gas, coal, and timber reserves of Siberia and the Russian Far East make Russia rich in natural resources. However, most such resources are located in remote and climatically unfavorable areas that are difficult to develop and far from Russian ports. Nevertheless, Russia is a leading producer and exporter of minerals, gold, and all major fuels. Natural resources, especially energy, dominate Russian exports. Ninety percent of Russian exports to the United States are minerals or other raw materials.

====Industry====
[[Image:Tower Russia.JPG|right|180px]]
Russia is one of the most industrialized of the former Soviet republics. However, years of very low investment have left much of Russian industry antiquated and highly inefficient. Besides its resource-based industries, it has developed large manufacturing capacities, notably in metals, food products, and transport equipment. Russia is now the world's third-largest exporter of steel and primary aluminum. Russia inherited most of the defense industrial base of the Soviet Union, so armaments remain an important export category for Russia. Efforts have been made with varying success over the past few years to convert defense industries to civilian use, and the Russian Government is engaged in an ongoing process to privatize the remaining 9,222 state-owned enterprises, 33% of which are in the industrial manufacturing sector.
 

====Agriculture====
For its great size, Russia has relatively little area suited for agriculture because of its arid climate and inconsistent rainfall. Northern areas concentrate mainly on livestock, and the southern parts and western Siberia produce grain. Restructuring of former state farms has been an extremely slow process. Foreigners are not allowed to own farmland in Russia although long-term leases are permitted. Private farms and garden plots of individuals account for over one-half of all agricultural production.

====Investment/Banking====
[[File:Russian Federation Central Bank.jpg|left|thumb|330px|Russian Federation Central Bank.]]
Russia attracted an estimated $31 billion in FDI in 2006 (3.2% of GDP), up from $13 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2005.Russia's annual FDI figures are now in line with those of China, India, and Brazil. However, Russia's per capita cumulative FDI still lags far behind such countries as Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. The paradox is that Russia's challenging business climate, lack of transparency, and weak rule of law/corruption has taken a back seat to Russia's extraordinary macroeconomic fundamentals and the consumer and retail boom, which is providing double digit returns to investors and attracting new flows. Russian domestic investment is also returning home, as the foreign investment coming into Russia from havens like Cyprus and Gibraltar, is actually returning Russian capital . As of the end of 2006, loans to the financial sector were 57.2% of total banking sector assets. Retail loans amounted to $78.4 billion at the end of 2006, up from $41 billion at the end of 2005. Retail deposits increased to $144.1 billion from $95.7 billion over the same period. Also, currently deposits are fully insured up to $4,000 and an additional $12,000 is insured at 90%.

Although still small by international standards, the Russian banking sector is growing fast and is becoming a larger source of investment funds. To meet a growing demand for loans, which they were unable to cover with domestic deposits, Russian banks borrowed heavily abroad in 2006, accounting for two-thirds of the private-sector capital inflows in that year. Ruble lending has increased since the October 1998 financial crisis, and in 2006 loans were 63% of total bank assets, with consumer loans posting the fastest growth at 74% that same year. Fewer Russians prefer to keep their money outside the banking sector, the recent appreciation of the ruble against the dollar has persuaded many Russians to keep their money in rubles or other currencies such as the euro, and retail deposits grew by 65% in 2006. Despite recent growth, the poorly developed banking system, along with contradictory regulations across banking, bond, and equity markets, still makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to raise capital as well as to permit capital transfer from a capital-rich sector such as energy to capital-poor sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing and to diversify risk. Banks still perceive small and medium commercial lending as risky, and some banks are inexperienced with assessing credit risk, though the situation is improving. In 2003, Russia enacted a deposit insurance law to protect deposits up to 100,000 rubles (about $3,700) per depositor, and a bill is currently in the Duma, which if passed will increase this coverage to 190,000 rubles (about $7,000) per depositor.

====Trade====
[[File:Moscow International Business Centre 2008.jpg|thumb|400px|Moscow International Business Centre, 2008.]]
The U.S. exported $4.7 billion in goods to Russia in 2006, a 21% increase from the previous year. Corresponding U.S. imports from Russia were $19.8 billion, up 29%. Russia is currently the 33rd-largest export market for U.S. goods. Russian exports to the U.S. were fuel oil, inorganic chemicals, aluminum, and precious stones. U.S. exports to Russia were machinery, meat (mostly poultry), electrical equipment, and high-tech products.

Russia's overall trade surplus in 2006 was $139 billion, up from $118 billion in 2005. World prices continue to have a major effect on export performance, since commodities--particularly oil, natural gas, metals, and timber--comprise 80% of Russian exports. Russian GDP growth and the surplus/deficit in the Russian Federation state budget are closely linked to world oil prices.

Russia is in the process of negotiating terms of accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The U.S. and Russia concluded a bilateral WTO accession agreement in late 2006, and negotiations continue in 2007 on meeting WTO requirements for accession. Russia reports that it has yet to conclude bilateral agreements with Saudi Arabia and Georgia.

According to the 2005 U.S. Trade Representative's National Trade Estimate, Russia continues to maintain a number of barriers with respect to imports, including tariffs and tariff-rate quotas; discriminatory and prohibitive charges and fees; and discriminatory licensing, registration, and certification regimes. Discussions continue within the context of Russia's WTO accession to eliminate these measures or modify them to be consistent with internationally accepted trade policy practices. Non-tariff barriers are frequently used to restrict foreign access to the market and are also a significant topic in Russia's WTO negotiations. In addition, large losses to U.S. audiovisual and other companies in Russia owing to poor enforcement of intellectual property rights in Russia is an ongoing irritant in U.S.-Russia trade relations. Russia continues to work to bring its technical regulations, including those related to product and food safety, into conformity with international standards.

==History==
See: [[History of Russia]]

== See also ==
[[File:Repin Self Portrait 1878.jpg|thumb|[[Ilya Repin]], Self Portrait, 1878.]]
*[[Gallery of Russian painting]]
*[[Soviet Union]]
*[[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] 1983 shootdown incident that intensified "2nd Cold War"
*[[KAL 007: Soviet stalk, shoot down, and rescue mission orders transcripts]] with Russian Federation 1992 Soviet military communications handover to U.N.
*[[KAL 007: the Russian Federation support for a water landing]]
*[[Larry McDonald]] only U.S. congressman killed by the Russians during Cold War

==Further reading==
===Guidebooks===
* ''Frommer's Moscow & St. Petersburg'' by Angela Charlton (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/Frommers-Moscow-St-Petersburg-Complete/dp/0470194030/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239323968&sr=1-7 excerpt and text search]
* ''Eyewitness: Russia'' by Kathleen Berton Murrell, (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-Russia-Kathleen-Berton-Murrell/dp/0789458802/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239323968&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* ''Russia & Belarus'' (Lonely Planet Travel Guides) by Mark Elliott (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/Russia-Belarus-Lonely-Planet-Travel/dp/1741042917/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239324359&sr=1-15 excerpt and text search]
===Surveys===
* Goldman, Marshall I. ''Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia'' (2008), by a leading scholar [http://www.amazon.com/Petrostate-Putin-Power-New-Russia/dp/0195340736/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239323968&sr=1-5 extract and text search]
* Politkovskaya, Anna. ''Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Putins-Russia-Life-Failing-Democracy/dp/0805082506/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239323968&sr=1-9 extract and text search]
* Service, Robert. ''A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin'' (2005)
* Lucas, Edward. ''The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/New-Cold-War-Putins-Russia/dp/0230606121/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239323968&sr=1-12 extract and text search]

====references====
<references/>

==External links==

*[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html The World Fact Book]
*[http://russiatrek.org Russian cities and regions guide]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russia and the U.S.]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ An Open Secret: the gulags of the Russian Federation]

[[Category:European Countries]]
[[Category:Asian Countries]]
[[Category:Russia]]
[[Category:Russian History]]
[[Category:Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Former Soviet Countries]]

Music

2013-03-16T12:45:17Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

[[Image:Music..jpg|right|240px]]
{{etymology|From Middle English ''musik'', from Anglo-French ''musike'', from [[Latin]] ''musica'', from [[Greek language|Greek]] μουσικη ''mousike''}}
[[Music]] as an [[art]], is a form consisting entirely of organized [[sound]] interspersed with periods of silence.<ref>[http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=Music Music] defined in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.</ref> It takes its name from nine [[Greek mythology|Greek]] goddesses known as the ''[[Muses]]'', who specialized in stimulation of an artist's or poet's mind.

Music is known for its ability to stir human emotion, and its effects on the human brain are believed to be more profound than those produced by other art forms. <ref>Oliver Sacks, ''Musicophilia''</ref>. This ability of music to affect one's mental state has allowed it to be used as a form of therapy for patients with mental illnesses such as [[schizophrenia]]. Music is also considered to be humankind's oldest art form, and is common to almost all known human cultures.

== What is music? ==
[[Image:Opera Rossini.jpg|thumb|300px|Opera by Rossini.]]
Music is difficult to define, as it is difficult to extricate a clinical definition of the word from the inherent value judgments that accompany it. In everyday usage, the word "music" is understood to be sounds which are organized to enthrall and move the listener, in contrast to "noise" which is unorganized sound producing no particular effect. Inevitably, some music (particularly some types of modern music) is described as "noise" or "not music" by listeners who do not enjoy or understand it. What appears as music to one person may be interpreted as noise to another, and vice versa, as interpretation of sounds, whether organized or disorganized, dissonant or harmonious, may arouse different sorts of feelings in a listener.

Common definitions therefore include "organized sound" or "art in the medium of sound". But even these do not encompass some avant-garde works, such as John Cage's ''4'33'''', which contains no notes and instead comprises whatever background sounds happen to occur during a performance.

Note that music is ''not'' limited to such sounds that a human being might produce by fashioning an instrument for the making of a simplified or otherwise organized sound and then "playing" said instrument. The chirping of birds and certain insects may properly be called music, especially if the sound produced is particularly pleasant to the listener. Furthermore, some of the most sophisticated music attempts to imitate the sounds made by birds, insects, and other animals.

== Basic music theory ==
: ''Main Article: [[Music theory]]''
The basic building blocks of Western music comprise ''tones/notes'', ''melodies'', [[counterpoint|''counterpoint'']], ''harmony'' and ''rhythm''. A ''tone'' is the purest form of sound, having a single [[frequency]]. However, pure tones do not occur in music. In practice, tones present themselves to the human ear together with ''overtones'', which typically are small-[[integer]] multiples of the basic frequency (the ''fundamental tone''). These overtones are what give each instrument (or, in the case of voices, each vowel) its characteristic sound. A trumpet and a violin playing the same pitch will be clearly distinguished because the relative strengths of their overtones are different. In human speech and singing, the long vowels U (oo), O (oh) and A (aw) have stronger low overtones, while the vowels E (ee) and I (eye) have stronger higher overtones. You can hear this for yourself by pronouncing an "ooh" vowel and very slowly shifting to an "ee" vowel while carefully listening to the sound produced.

=== Notes, intervals, and scales ===
[[Image:Musicalnotes.jpg|right]]
Two tones played together form an [[interval (music)|''interval'']]. The simplest of all intervals is the ''[[octave]]'', formed by two tones, one of whose frequencies is the exact double of the other. The full collection of tones that one can play between the two notes of an octave is called a ''[[musical scale|scale]].'' In Western music, most scales are ''semi-tonal'', with twelve tones between the octave notes. (The high end of the octave is considered a repetition of the low end, but at twice the frequency.) [[Oriental]] music commonly has ''quarter-tonal'' scales, with twenty-four separate tones within an octave. Quarter tones are often difficult to distinguish for a Western listener, and such music, as a result, tends to suggest the sinuous movement of a snake.

The [[Greece|Greeks]] recognized early that fundamental tones in music have a simple and strict [[mathematics|mathematical]] relationship. As mentioned, the octave consists of two notes, one at double the frequency of the other. At ''triple'' the frequency, one hears a low fundamental tone, and a higher tone that is past the octave but roughly midway toward the second octave. If one then divides the high-tone frequency by two, one creates the interval called the ''perfect fifth'' or ''dominant'' interval, one of the most common intervals used in Western music. One can test this relationship by striking a note on a [[piano]] while holding down another key that is one octave higher than the perfect fifth. The second note will sound in sympathy with the first because it is resonating with the overtone from the first note.

=== Melody and counterpoint ===
''Melody'' is the series of notes that most closely captures the attention of the listener: the 'tune' one hums along with.

''Counterpoint'' is a specific technique for creating secondary melodies that intertwine with and complement the main melody. In most music since the 17th century, including modern popular music, the bass line is written in counterpoint with the most prominent melody. Another example from the popular tradition would be dueling guitar leads. The best representation of counterpoint in classical music is considered to be the [[fugue]], a very strict form which is best exemplified by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]].

===Harmony===
When two or more notes sound at the same time, it is called a [[chord (music)|chord]] , and the distance between the notes is the interval. In the western 12-note scale common usage, an interval is often expressed in relative terms, using the eight notes that make up an octave and prefixing 'major' or 'minor' to account for the interstitial notes. For instance, the interval between 'C' and 'E' is a 3rd because 'E' is the 3rd note in the major scale of C. One-half step below that is a minor 3rd, although this exact same note could also be called an augmented 2nd.

[[Harmony]] is the study of notes which occur together or which are perceived as being together. This usually means notes which are played simultaneously, as in a chord, but can also apply to notes within a melody which outline a chord. The harmony that results from the combination of any two or more notes depends on the interval present between those notes. A system of Roman numerals is the most common means used to analyze harmony.
[[Image:In concert Jean Claude Gaugy.jpg|left|220px]]
Many of the feelings and emotions that music can evoke are a result of the tension between the consonant (pleasant) sound of some intervals, and the dissonant sound of others. During the development of western music, certain rules were established for proper harmony, and these rules specified how intervals (chords) could change over time in the music.

For example, the interval of the 3rd is one of the most common and consonant in classical (and popular) music. But in the medieval music, 3rd were deemed to be dissonant. While they still occurred, particularly in English music more than continental European music, they would 'resolve' to a 5th, which was considered a purer interval. In classical music, the open 5th is considered to sound too bare and exposed. Until the sixteenth century, chords containing certain intervals, like 7ths, were required to resolve to the more harmonious octave, while other intervals, like diminished 5ths, were deemed ugly and even considered evil, and banned from use in liturgical music. In fact, the diminished fifth (or augmented fourth) was referred to as the ''diabolus in musica'' (literally, 'the devil in music'), as was believed to represent Satan. Today, in writing counterpoint, students are taught not to write lines which leap between or outline the diminished fifth, although this is now for musical rather than superstitious reasons.

Throughout the classical and romantic eras, the harmonic language used by composers was gradually expanded, becoming increasingly complex and free. By the time of the early twentieth century, certain composers like [[Arnold Schoenberg]] broke away from traditional tonality entirely, and pioneered the use of atonal harmony.

=== Rhythm ===
''Rhythm'' consists of all aspects of music that suggest ''forward movement.'' Most music contains a regularly repeating sequence of ''beats'', or strong elements, that typically lead with a ''down beat'' followed by any of a small number of slightly weaker beats. A down beat and its weaker beats form a ''measure.'' Usually, all measures in a piece of music have the same number of beats.

A note in music is described not only by pitch, or frequency, but also by duration. Notes in Western music have names that typically describe how long they would sound in a typical measure. ''Whole notes'' are so called because normally they would sound for the full measure. ''Half notes'' would sound for half the measure, ''quarter notes'' for a fourth of the measure, and so on. A note may also carry a ''dot'' to the right of it, that indicates that the note is to sound for one and one-half times its usual duration.

Any one of these notes may carry a beat, and a measure may have any number of beats. Thus every piece of music commonly carries at least one [[meter signature|''time signature'']] describing how many beats a measure has, and which type of note carries one beat. The most common time is "four-quarter time" (four beats per measure, with the beat given to the quarter note), which is therefore called "common time." Other commonly used time signatures include three-quarter, six-eighth, nine-eighth, or two-half (called ''Alla breve'' or "cut time"). Even rarer are the time signatures with prime numbers of beats (other than three-quarter), including five-quarter or even eleven-eighth.

''Tempo'' ([[Italian]] for "time") describes how frequently the beats occur. The typical tempo signature is a drawing of the note that has the beat, followed by the number of beats per minute.

Notes may be ''accented'' at any time. In fact, often the accent will fall on the weak beat and make the beats seem to sound out-of-sequence. The result is ''syncopated'' rhythm.

Some sub-genres of [[rock and roll]] feature a ''backbeat.''<ref>[http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/12/07/RockRules Normative Backbeat] at Tbray.org</ref> These are the second and fourth beats, in four-quarter time, unstressed in classical usage, which become stressed even more strongly than the down beat. An especially prominent backbeat is a defining feature of reggae and ska music.

== Types of instruments ==
: ''Main Article: [[Musical instruments]]''

== History ==
[[Image:Musica Cassell.jpg|right|thumb|300px]]
Evidence of musical activity is present in all known human cultures. The earliest known complete piece of music is the ''Epitaph of Seikilos'', carved in stone in Greece some time around the first century AD. Thereafter, the most complete historical record of musical development is European sacred music. Plainchant, or [[Gregorian]] chant, was first codified in the sixth century - although it had existed for many years prior to that - and from the 11th century onwards plain-chant formed the basis for the earliest known use of harmony.

The Greeks, when [[Alexander the Great]] accepted the surrender of [[Jerusalem]] in his wars of conquest, introduced their own brand of music to the region which the Jews largely resisted. But music was highly prominent throughout the Greek world—and later in the [[Rome|Roman]] world following Rome's conquest of Greece. The Greeks' contributions to music theory influenced artists for centuries to come, and still have a strong influence today, especially on composers who prefer to adhere to the classical traditions of music.

The earliest Greek music was associated with Greek [[theater]]. Beginning with the fall of Rome, however, music became largely liturgical. The primary influence remained the [[Roman Catholic Church]] until the twin movements of the Renaissance and the Reformation, each of which introduced a countervailing tradition.

From that time forward, most scholars divide music into "classical" music (composed primarily to achieve a high art) and "popular" music (composed for the masses and tending to achieve wide, but ephemeral, appeal).<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/popular%20music Popular music] defined at the Free Dictionary</ref>

"Classical music" tends to rely more on written notation, as a piece of classical music is generally held to transcend any particular interpretation of it. In current practice, such music is performed in concerts where the audience is expected to remain respectfully silent and the performers dress formally; however, in the past such music was often performed at salons and other informal private gatherings. In addition, the increasing importance of the written transmission of such music has reduced the role of improvisation, which was extremely important through the beginning of the "Romantic" era. Classical music also displays great musical complexity through the use of varied rhythms, chord progressions, counterpoint, and other compositional techniques, while maintaining a deep emotional content.

"Popular music" on the other hand, tends to be more accessible to the general public through the use of simpler forms and relatively simple compositional techniques. Much popular music is the product of modern business enterprise, as opposed to folk music (created by ordinary people for their own enjoyment) or classical music (which was originally written for religious practice or for the entertainment of the nobility).

These two genres; however, are not necessarily distinct, as composers such as [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] would often incorporate themes from "popular music" of their time into their works. Other classical composers like [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]] and [[George Gershwin|Gershwin]] were well-known for their use of jazz idiom in works like the Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra and [[Rhapsody in Blue]]. On the other hand, popular music has borrowed many themes from classical works (one notable example is "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by [[Procol Harum]]). In addition, "popular music" is not necessarily simpler than classical, as forms like jazz and progressive rock make use of complex time signatures that do not often occur in classical works, and some popular musicians like [[Frank Zappa]] are considered serious composers in their own right.

== Music in the Bible ==

The [[Bible]] suggests that music actually began in [[heaven]]. It credits [[Satan|Lucifer]] as being the first musician, and [[Jubal]], son of [[Lamech the Murderer]] by his wife [[Adah]], with introducing music to mankind.<ref>{{Bible ref|book=Genesis|chap=5|verses=19-21|version=KJV}}</ref>

King [[David]], at the height of his reign, is said to have had a ''four-thousand-voice choir'' to assist in the worship of [[God]]. The Book of [[Psalms]] is a collection of lyrics composed by David for some of the first worship songs in Israelite tradition. The [[Song of Solomon]] may also have been intended to be sung.

Mentions of "singing to the Lord" abound in the [[Old Testament]]. The most specific testimony to the power of music over human emotions is surely contained in the story of King [[Saul]] and how he came to recruit the young [[David]] as his armorbearer and personal musician.<ref>{{Bible ref|book=I_Samuel|chap=16|verses=14-23|version=KJV}}</ref> It has also been theorised that the original meaning of the verb "to prophecy" was "to make music".

== Classical and popular music ==
[[image:Liszt-1870.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Franz Liszt]] in 1870]]
The division of music into "[[Classical music|classical]]" and "popular" is, like the definition of music itself, a source of controversy. To group music into one category or the other is problematic, as there is an implied value judgment between the two. [[Jazz]], for example, began as a fusion of marching band music (which is close to the classical tradition), folk music, such as the Blues (which is closer to popular music), and ragtime (which was popular music at the time but which is now more often grouped with the classics). Jazz music itself was firmly grouped in the popular tradition until World War Two, but offshoots of it have since become much closer in style to contemporary classical music.

Common criteria used to distinguish between classical and contemporary music are often unreliable, as both can be used for entertainment, for worship, to accompany other art forms such as theater, for dancing, to relax or motivate people, and for the purpose of making money.

Both forms of music can be used as propaganda, as in some of the works of [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] (although this is debated; see the article on Shostakovich for a more complete discussion).

Many types of music have been used to accompany dancing. This was as true in the past as it is today, all over the world, whether in the discos of American nightclubs or the salsa bars of Latin America. Today, people may [[dance]] to Madonna (the female recording artist), while a generation ago people were dancing to the works of Duke Ellington and Sammy Nestico. Before that, the waltzes of Strauss were popular, while in the Baroque era (1650-1750), the dance suite was a popular compositional form. Dancing to music, whether melodic or rhythmic in nature, often plays a ritualistic role in societies across the world. Music and dance have been central to the rites of many religions and can also be found in some Christian religious traditions.

== Possible healing effects ==
The recent case of a choir consisting primarily of sufferers from various neurological [[disease]]s and some of their caregivers, friends and associates, has highlighted recent evidence that performing music, or even listening to it, might actually help to heal the [[brain]], in addition to providing helpful emotional support to the disease sufferers. Music appears to stimulate the brain to find supplemental neural pathways to route around a region of damage. Benefits have been observed in patients suffering from [[stroke]], [[Parkinson's Disease]], and other degenerative neurological disorders.<ref name=cnn>Hooper S, "Music a 'mega-vitamin' for the brain," Cable News Network, 2 June 2009. Accesssed 3 June 2009. <http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/02/music.therapy/index.html?eref=rss_latest></ref>

<blockquote>
Listening to music can have a tremendously relaxing effect on our minds and bodies, especially slow, quiet classical music. This type of music can have a beneficial effect on our physiological functions, slowing the pulse and heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and decreasing the levels of [[stress]] hormones. <ref>[http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/the-power-of-music-to-reduce-stress/all/1/ The Power of Music To Reduce Stress.]</ref>
</blockquote>

== The power of music over human emotion ==
[[Image:Owana Salazar Classic Music.jpeg|right|240px]]
Music has a very powerful effect on the emotions of the listener. Music relies on [[sound]], and if "faith comes through hearing," then so does emotion. Music can instantly bring joy or sorrow, ecstasy or despair, and far more quickly than can any other form of art. Many musical composers insist that their music merely expresses emotions. This does not do music justice. Music does more than express emotions; it induces them.<ref>[http://www.musica.uci.edu/mrn/V3I1S96.html MUSICA Notes III(1), Spring 1996]</ref>

The amateur botanist Dorothy L. Retallack, in 1973, claimed to have found that music can have an effect on plants. "Positive" music (that produces joy or contentment) supposedly made plants flourish and even "reach" for, or grow toward, such music. Negative music (that produces frustration, restlessness, or especially anger and rage) supposedly caused plants to "recoil" (grow away) from the music, and prolonged or repeated exposure debilitates and eventually killed plants, or so she said.<ref>Retallack, Dorothy L. ''The Sound of Music and Plants''. Devorss and Company, June 1973, 96 pp., paperback. ISBN 0875161707</ref><ref>[http://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/ About Positive and Negative Music] from the Dovesong Foundation</ref>

No botanist has ever reproduced Retallack's claimed results. But the effects on animals and humans are far better documented and much more profound than any effect on plants that Retallack ever claimed. That animals, and especially [[dog]]s and [[cat]]s, recoil in horror from the sound of a poorly trained voice, is proverbial (and in fact the animals might be reacting to a sound that is not merely grating but acutely and physically painful to their ears). The Dovesong Foundation has found evidence for musical preferences by cattle<ref>[http://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/archives/basement/Cows%20and%20Classical%20Music.asp Cows Prefer Classical Music]</ref> and [[cetacea]]ns.<ref>[http://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/archives/basement/Steinhart_Dolphins.asp Dolphins Don't Like Rock] (The article refers to the classic [[dolphin]] (family [[Cetacea]]), aka "porpoise," not the fish of that name.)</ref>

Music has also had a profound and well-documented effect in human history. The history of warfare includes a rich history of martial music. More recently, music has now found a use in the healing of negative emotional states and even as an aid to the healing of physical disabilities.<ref>[http://www.musictherapy.org/ The American Music Therapy Association]</ref>

Commercial enterprises always attempt, at great expense of time, money, and effort, to find and deploy forms of music that will enhance worker productivity or cause prospective customers to behave in a manner calculated to make them purchase their goods and/or services. The pop selections played in supermarkets are a prime example.
Music played over public address systems is also used to dissuade [[youth]]s from loitering around shopping centers and railway stations.

Music has always been an adjunct to [[theater]]. This is especially true of the performing arts called ''[[opera]]'' and ''[[ballet]]'', but applies also to the use of music as an adjunct to a theatrical production, whether on the stage, as a [[motion picture]], or as a [[television]] show.

Music also has an obvious use in [[propaganda]], in which the propagandist seeks to manipulate people's emotions and stir them typically to rage and hostility against certain groups.

Finally, music can strengthen in the listener a curiosity about, or even a desire for, an act of sexual or other [[sin]].<ref>[http://cranach.worldmagblog.com/cranach/archives/2006/08/draft_linking_s.html Linking Sexual Music and Teen Behavior] by Gene Edward Veith at the [http://www.worldmagblog.com World Magazine Blog]</ref><ref>[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51496 Face the music, parents] at [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/ WorldNetDaily] 12 August 2006</ref> Sadly, this use of music is probably as old as "the oldest profession." Cultural critics observe, pointedly, that permissive cultures have permissive music, and non-permissive cultures avoid such music.

Yet for all this, music is still important in worship. If it were not, then it would not have received the favorable attention that the [[Bible]] clearly gives to it. As powerful a force for evil as it might be, music can be an equally powerful force to encourage the listener to worship, appreciate, and above all obey God and keep His laws--at least, as best as any human being is able.

* ''Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.'' Berthold Auerbach.

* ''Music can soften the unbridgeable political gulfs that separate peoples in conflict.''<ref> [http://peacemusiccommunity.ning.com/forum/topics/the-folklore-of-the-other The Folklore of the Other]</ref>

=== Is music neutral? ===
For a detailed answer, see [[Essay:Music is not neutral]].

== Traditions and principles for liturgical music ==
[[Saint Paul]] specifically exhorts his readers to employ music, and specifically "psalms, hymns, and spiritual odes," to bring them closer to God.<ref>{{Bible ref|book=Ephesians|chap=5|verses=19|version=KJV}}</ref> <ref>{{Bible ref|book=Colossians|chap=3|verses=16|version=KJV}}</ref> In this context, a ''psalm'' is not necessarily a chapter out of the Book of [[Psalms]]; it can be any song that primarily quotes any part of Scripture. ''Hymns'' are songs primarily of praise and magnification of [[God]]; they do not, however, directly quote Scripture in most of their lyrics, as "psalms" do. ''Spiritual odes'' are primarily personal testimonies, either of salvation or of one's own perception of God. ''[[Amazing Grace]]'', by [[John Newton]], is a prime example. ''It Is Well With My Soul'', by [[Horatio Spafford]], is one song that has features of a hymn ''and'' a spiritual ode.

[[John Wesley]] too sought spirituality through music and wrote in his Directions for Singing that "Above all, sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing Him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this, attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually." <ref>http://users.mstar2.net/brucewrites/rules.htm</ref>

The Rev. Alan B. Brown, MDiv, ThM, has studied liturgical music extensively. In his view.<ref>Brown, Alan B.: telephone interview conducted on 1 March 2007 with user [[User:TerryH|TerryH]]</ref> liturgical music ought to satisfy three prime tests:

# Are the lyrics ''accurate'', either when they quote Scripture or reflect [[Christian]] principles?
# Can you properly ''associate'' the lyrics and/or the notes with Godly things, as opposed to worldly things?
# Are the lyrics and/or the notes ''appropriate'' for worship in general, and in the setting of a particular celebration?

The actual notes to the tunes that, say, King David's choir might have sung, or his royal orchestra might have produced, are lost to us today. But the titles of many of the Psalms contain specific instructions, originally to the music director at King David's court, as to the type of tune and the types of instruments required. Archaeologists have recovered coins and other artifacts depicting musical instruments and musicians from various digs in [[Israel]]. The detail has often enabled inventors to reconstruct the instruments likely used by the court orchestras of Kings David and [[Solomon]].<ref name=Rubin>Rubin, Norman A. "[http://www.bibarch.com/Music/Music%20and%20the%20Bible.htm Musical Instruments in Biblical Israel]." ''[http://www.bibarch.com/ Biblical Archaeology]''. Accessed June 2, 2008</ref>

Hymnists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often set the Psalms and other portions of Scripture to music, often with very good effect. The best-known example is the ''Doxology'' (literally, "study in glory") that is a paraphrase of Psalm 100; the tune is called "Old Hundredth" and remains popular today.

== Controversies surrounding music today ==
[[Image:Harrison-Rucker-Barefoot-Recital.jpg|left|200px]]
Music perhaps has always been controversial, but the controversies surrounding music today rage with particular vehemence. The question of what is, and what is not, music is relatively tame. Different composers (such as avant-garde musician John Cage) have always experimented with different music conventions, and always will (perhaps they must). Many such experiments fail in that the works produced draw only small audiences, and ultimately no one will play them as no one will pay to listen to them or to have them played for other people. However, whether or not the 'success' of a musical venture can be ascertained based on the size of the audience it draws is somewhat tenuous, as music subject to much critical acclaim can often be shunned by the wider public in favour of more heavily promoted music.

Rather, the most raging controversy concerns certain genres of popular music that have provoked adverse political comment precisely because of the emotions they incite and the themes they sound, both in lyrics and in notes. Some parents of adolescent and pre-adolescent children object to music that explicitly (mainly through its lyrics) exhorts its listeners to sexual sin. Members of various political interest groups object to music that they believe provokes its listeners to show ''disrespect'' for members of those groups.

Some listeners and music critics defend music as "amoral," that is, morally neutral. They maintain that music exists only for people to enjoy, not to make a political point. Any morality found in the music, they argue, is a result of what the listener imparts onto the music. For some, indeed, music is an escape. To them, one who tries to infer a serious purpose in a given piece of music ought to abandon the attempt and simply enjoy it for what it is. This attitude recalls [[Mark Twain|Mark Twain's]] famous introduction to [[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]:<blockquote>PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR, Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance.</blockquote>

The reaction of so many interested parties to various types of popular music today would seem to militate against that stance. Indeed, history is replete with examples of various pieces of music from earlier eras inciting their listeners to violence; [[Maurice Ravel|Maurice Ravel's]] signature work ''Bolero'', for example, was known to incite riots<ref>[http://www.kalvos.org/bazzr086.html Essay 86: Bolero v. Gliere, Round 1] by David Gunn, at Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar</ref>, as was [[Igor Stravinsky|Igor Stravinsky's]] work ''The Rite of Spring''.<ref>[http://www.nottinghamphilharmonic.co.uk/notes/SRS.html The Rite of Spring] by the Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra</ref>

Riots have also broken out at many rock-and-roll concerts, and often the responding law-enforcement authorities have been at a loss to determine the ultimate causes of those riots. The ''proximate'' cause typically is a one-on-one fight in which other concert attendees joined in—but what put the original combatants into a fighting mood, or causes others to join a fight that was, strictly speaking, not theirs, is far more difficult to explain. Perhaps too many of the listeners are worshiping the performers as if they were [[pagan]] [[idol]]s—a circumstance that, some say, composers like [[Franz Liszt]] and [[Nicolo Paganini]] had to contend with or even chose to exploit. Perhaps the causes have as much to do with the subculture of which rock-and-roll music is a part, as with the music itself. Then, too, no [[physician]] has ever investigated the chronic, or long-standing, effects of a steady [[aural]] diet of different genres of music—beyond expressing concern that many listeners are listening to their music too loud and damaging their hearing with the sheer physical stress of the loud sounds. The only signs that anyone can study, if they are signs of anything at all, are the statistics concerning psychological stress affecting, and substance abuse by, performers of various types of music. (Riots do not routinely break out at classical performances—at least, not since the ''Rite of Spring'' riot mentioned above. This might simply be due to wild behavior not being normative on the part of those who routinely patronize such music.)

Throughout world history, "new" music (which 200 years later may be considered classical or traditions) has often elicited the claim "dangerous" "sexually perverse" and "against human nature". Both Mozart and Beethoven were regarded as dangerous, and the entire "major chord" system was offensive to early Christian ears. Music from other cultures, seen by some as merely different or ethnic, is often labeled dangerous or simply "noise" by outside cultures.

==Musical Talent==
[[File:Ana Caridad Villeda soprano.jpg|thumb|140px|Mexican soprano Ana Caridad Villeda.]]
People have long debated whether musical ability is inherited. A team of Anglo-American researchers estimated "that between 70 to 80 per cent of an individual's ability to recognise musical pitch is inherited" the heritability of musical talent at 70%, meaning that after allowing for a 30% influence from known factors they assumed that the rest comes from genes. [http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_11043.asp]

Music educator Joel Lewis begs to differ: "Musical talent just isn’t inherited: it really is created." [http://www.joellewis.net/is-musical-talent-inherited/]

== See also ==

*[[Classical music]]
*[[Joaquín Rodrigo]]
*[[Famous Art]]
*[[Singing the Hebrew Scriptures]]
*[[Chord (music)]]
*[[Gospel music]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.essortment.com/in/Music.History/index.htm History of Musical Styles and Time Periods]
*[http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/music-history.htm Music history]
*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/26/five-myths-contemporary-classical-music The five myths about contemporary classical music.]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Music from Heven,to the Bible, to the Mike, and back to Heaven]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Art]]
[[Category:Culture]]
[[Category:Musical terms]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Israel Tourism

2013-03-04T17:55:41Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External Links */

==The Setting==
From the snowy Peak of Mt. Hermon in the northern Galilee, through the lush greenery around the blue waters of Sea of [[Galilee]], the [[Kinneret]], to the heights of God drenched Jerusalem, down the shores of the Dead Sea, through the Negev Desert, to the southern tip of the resort town of Eilat on the sparkling Gulf of [[Aqaba]], Israel is a quilt work and a Mosaic of experiences for the Tourist to Israel.

Its 8,630 sq. miles and size about that of New Jersey, has varieties of temperature and terrain as does the State of California. Its 7 million potpourri of peoples, from over 100 countries on 5 continents combined with their religions of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and [[Druze]], or of no religion whatever, provide for the tourist a heady delight to experience and much food for thought. And a musical confluence of Hebrew and Arabic, and Ethiopian and Russian, French, English, Spanish, Persian, Turkish, Portuguese, a number of Indian dialects from the recently found and immigrated exiled Northern Tribe of Israel tribe of Northern India, the [[Bnei Menashe]] (the sons of [[Manasseh]]).

==Tourism History and Activity==

Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, tourism could be characterized as primarily pilgrimage. Pilgrims, Christians in the main, had been coming to the Holy Land to visit the sites associated with the life of Jesus Christ. These sites were, by and large, under the custodianship of the major Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches - Roman Catholic, Greek and Russian Orthodox, and Armenian were the most prominent. These churches, with the Anglican, had, during Ottoman times, gained ownership or control of key tracks of land on which they had erected buildings to house their respective pilgrims. Even today, these Churches still own these properties, leasing them out to the Israeli Government. The Russian Compound in the center of West Jerusalem which is now leased by the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to the Israeli government for the use of the Central Jerusalem Police Station, the Circuit Court and other government ministries, was, in the late 1800's, the center for Russian Otrthodox pilgrimage. Likewise, the Greek Orthodox Church owns the land on which the Knesset (Parliament) and the Presidential House are situated.

With the rise of the State of Israel, pilgrimage gradually gave place to a more general interest in Israel as a nation and as a people - "tourism" as we know it today. With the influx of Protestant visitors from all over the world conversant with the Bible, the Land as a whole and the places "where Jesus walked" began to attract attention along with the traditional holy sites and churches. The rise of archeology and the intensification of the discovery of the actual sites mentioned in the Bible, with, now, the support of the Israeli Department of Antiquities, broadened "pilgrimage" into "tourism". People now wanted to see the places that they had read about in the Bible, and now, thanks to the archaeological endeavor, had been made accessible. "Support for Israel" played its part, too, as greater numbers of Evangelical Churches, along with the Jewish communities of the Diaspora, saw that being faithful to the God of Israel entailed faithfulness also to the new nation of Israel, itself a fulfillment of prophesy. And it is so today. In the times of the the most turmoil and threat of war and terrorism (see [[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]), such as during the two [[Intifada]]s, and the most recent "[[Second Lebanon War]]", it has been the Evangelical Churches which have enabled the continuance of the Israel tourist industry.

Tourism today, cresting on an over 20% increase in 2007 than in 2006, is a rapidly developing movement still holding its place, having displaced the diamond cutting industry, and now second to the "High Tech" industry in providing revenue for the State of Israel. Muslim nations still not having diplomatic relations with State of Israel, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, now have a steady stream of tourism and it is not infrequent that Israeli tour guides learn their languages. But there too, it is largely the small evangelical minorities of these nations, however great the numbers, that are providing the tourists. Some Nigerian states are now almost completely sponsoring their Christians, Catholic and Protestant, making it possible for them to make pilgrimage to Israel, just as other Nigerian states are sponsoring their people for the [[Haj]] to Mecca. The Jewish communities of the United States bring large numbers of their youth to Israel through the "BirthRight" program enabling them to "taste" Israel and in the process, to do as the other tourists do -- tour Israel. Russians are now a common sight in the tourist hotels. This time, they come as curious tourists, not as Orthodox (in the main) pilgrims, and are guided by Russian speaking new immigrants to Israel, driven in buses owned by other Russian new Israelis. Tours to Israel, nowadays, are organized and promoted not only by the traditional tourist agencies abroad, but large churches and well known Christian pastors and "media magnets" are the new tourism promoters and organizers. It is considered now as part of their ministry. P

==The Tour Agenda==

Tourists usually enter Israel through Ben Gurion International airport, but other possibilities are through either Jordon or Egypt if either of these countries are also being visited prior to Israel. If entrance is through Jordon, tourists enter Israel through the King Hussein bridge (Allenby bridge) or the Sheikh Hussein bridge. If Egypt is visited prior to Israel, entrance is through the Taba border into the resort town of [[Eilat]]. At these entrances, the tour bus is waiting. If in the morning or early afternoon, the tour begins immediately, and if in the late afternoon, tourists are brought to their hotels. A day's touring usually ends at anywhere between 5pm and 7:30 pm - depending on the itinerary for the day and the size and interests of the group. The morning tour will begin after breakfast at anywhere from 7:30 am to 8:30 am.

The tour either begins to the north, around the Sea of Galilee taking in the sights connected with the life and ministry of Jesus, or at Jerusalem, taking in the sites connected with the last days of Jesus on earth (Bethlehem is included in the Jerusalem portion) , or, if the tour is primarily a Jewish group, visiting the sites connected with Judaism and the various Jewish communities. There are also tours connected with Islamic sites but these are rarer and arranged with specialized tour agencies from abroad. The usual tour may be anywhere from 6 to 10 days. There are usually side tours for the longer tours. These will extend the Sea of Galilee portion to include the Golan heights to the east of the Sea of Galilee and the area near Mt. Hermon with its streams and Tels to the north of the Sea of Galilee. The Jerusalem portion of the tour is extended to take in the Dead Sea to the south east of Jerusalem (the Dead Sea may be visited even on the shorter tours). Jericho is usually included on all tours as it is along the Jordon river corridor connecting the Jerusalem and Galilee sections. Tours to Israel may include a side trip to Petra in Jordon with entrance to Jordan accessed near Eilat and may include a side trip to Mt.Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, with entrance through the Taba border crossing . There are also specialized tours that may feature visits to archaeological sites or kibbutzim, as well as one or two day "cruise tours" with cruise ships making the circuit of the Aegean islands, Roades, Cyprus, Turkey, and visiting Israel with entrance and exit through the port of Ashdod.

==Today's Variegated Tourism==

===Tourism can be vertical===
Such as at Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Entering the room below that of the Last Supper of Jesus, one views the huge remembrance stone of King David from Crusader times. But behind the wall, one can see the niche in the wall at the exact height above the ground for the biblical scrolls to be placed. So this room was originally a synagogue. Walking around the outside of the room, one sees the "Herodian" stone blocks with their characteristic and tell-tale incised borders. So this room was originally built in the first century. And then you will be told by the Guide that an artillery shell from the 1948 War of Independence landed in the courtyard, shattering the successive layers of plaster, until the last layer, that did indeed extend down past the Ottoman Turk, Early Muslim, Crusader, Byzantine period levels, and ending with the original 1st century floor, was inscribed in first century Greek with prayers to Jesus. So this was a Jewish Christian synagogue, the first Church and home to the original Believers in Jesus before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The "Church House" that would later be called "The Holy Church of the Apostles" and the Mother of all Churches.

===Tourism can be horizontal===
Laid out before you in all directions, while one is in a "Jesus boat" (one of the touring attractions) on the gentle (most of the time) blue waters of the Sea of Galilee. There to the left on the eastern shore is the once fishing village of Tiberias, now the more fascinating home of the Shwarma in Pita, and rhythmic Eastern music. Following north you see the village of Migdal with its now red-roofed houses, which lent its name to one women resident who followed Jesus, her Master and her "deliverer". This was Mary Magdalena - Miriam from Migdal.

Going past the Kibbutz Ginosar, with its recently found and set on display fishing boat from the first century, the "Ancient Jesus boat" (prototype of the boat you are in), you follow along to the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, which will be visited in the afternoon, where can be seen the Church of Mensa Christi (the "Table of Christ") commemorating the place where the resurrected Jesus cooked a fish breakfast for his disciples. But at the side of the Church, for the skeptics among us, one sees the first century steps going down to the shore and the lapping waters, that until 1964 (when Israel re-routed a water channel) were fed for thousands of years by a warm water spring that was a focal point of attraction for the Tilapia, also known as St. Peter's fish, or Amnon in Hebrew, or Musht in Arabic. This is where the fishing was great in the First Century.

Up on a hill behind the Church of Mensa Christi, all on the North Shore, is the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave "the Sermon on the Mount", and there, down below is the home town (for a while, at least) of Peter and Andrew - [[Capernaum]], with its imposing and truly gorgeous, white limestone remains of the 3rd century Synagogue, built on the remains (black basalt) and general floor plans of the First century synagogue that Jesus frequented and proclaimed, "I am the Bread of Life".

And to the right, on the Eastern shore, there are sights to see, such as Kursi, with its ruins of a Byzantine monastery, the only place where the herd of Swine could have rushed down the slope into the sea without having fallen off the otherwise-all-around sharp and tall precipice, the slope of [[Gadarene]] where Jesus drove out the demons that then entered the swine.

===Tourism can be "military"===
As you ride past the teenage kids in uniform going back to their bases anywhere in Israel, after being at home on the weekend, Israel is so small. Or as the tourist bus passes to the left of a tank convoy up from the Negev on the way to the Lebanese border, only to be stopped by a herd of sheep and their Bedouin shepherd crossing the main highway. Or by the lone soldier guarding 20 or so M-16s amd Uzi machine guns by the river feeder to the Jordon while in the river nearby a mass of screaming girl soldiers (and guys), let out on 2 week a year vacation, rafting without weapons with you down the white waters (bubbly froth) of the Nahal Hatzbani with its over-hanging and leafy trees and intermittent beaches (sand stops) to eat along the way. The Hatzbani, along with two other tributaries will lead you to the upper Jordon River, which will lead to the Sea of Galilee, which will lead to the "Jordan River", which will lead to the Dead Sea, which will lead, in the form of evaporated water (the Dead Sea having no outlet) to Heaven.

==The Panorama of Tourism==

Tourism can take you in a few short hours of whirlwind:

to the early centuries Nabatean strong hold of Avdat in the Negev desert.

To the white cliffs (and cable car) of Rosh HaNikra at the Northern tip of Israel where it meets the Lebanese border. White Cliffs lapped by the Mediterranean forging deep caverns at water's edge to enter.

To the magnificent civilization upon civilization Tel of Bet Shean, at the Jordan River entrance to the Jezreel Valley, upon which King Saul's body was hung by the Philistines, and which later became a built up Roman Colony, with all its bathhouses. Or Tel Dan with its altar to rival Jerusalem from the time of the divided Kingdom and with its earlier Bronze age entrance from the time of Abraham, or Tel Hazor with its casement walls protection which Joshua burned and from which Barak, later in the time of Deborah, would come down to defeat Sisera, or Tel Beer Sheva intimately associated with the events of Abraham, Tel Arad which stood in the way of Israel entering Canaan, Tel Megiddo with its protected water tunnel that one can go through, or Tel Lachish which Sennacharib of Assyria burnt.

To the Ultra-Orthodox section (no driving on the Sabbath!) of Jerusalem, called One Hundred Gates (or Measures), Mea Shearim, where the lives and the looks and locks (of hair), the customs and the smells bring you back to the synagogues and streets of 18th century Eastern Europe.

To the Bedouin tents surrounded with camels and children and black veiled women, where you can enter (has to be arranged) and sit on carpets and drink, sip, drops of coffee in a thimble container and no longer wonder, as you catch a T.V. from the corner of your eye, why there are antennas sticking out from the tops of the tents.

To the Orthodox monastery at the steep side of Wadi Kelt in the Desert, the Wadi that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho and the Dead Sea

To Jericho, to the walls of Jericho (What's left of them), and to the Dead Sea, where you can relax on your back reading a newspaper in the saltiest and most buoyant waters in the world, where there is more relaxing and sedating bromide in the oxygen of the air than anywhere else in the world, 1,378 feet below sea level, the lowest point on earth.

To Masada, on cable car, the high hill fortress by the Dead Sea, built up by King Herod from Hasmonean ruins to become his fortress against the Nabateans, Cleopatra of Egypt, and against his own subjects, where the Jews held out against the Romans after Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D, and committed suicide rather than surrender, and where in Modern Israel civilians were inducted into the Israeli Army - "Masada to fall never again!"

To Herodion, the cone shaped fortress built by King Herod just north of Bethlehem, from which he sent its garrison down the short distance to kill the Child King destined to destroy his own Kingdom and his power.

To Bethlehem itself with its Church of the Holy Nativity and the Shepherd's field so familiar to the imagination and memory from Scripture and Carol and so "provocative" to
what is in the soul of light and awe for those who treasure Christ.

To Golgotha in Jerusalem, just outside of the gates of First Century Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world and where He rose from the dead. To either one of the Golgothas, take your choice, the traditional Church of the Holy Sepulchre Golgotha, or "Gordon's Calvary" Golgotha. They each have something to say for them. For the skeptics among us. The First Church in the World, the Jewish-Christian Synagogue on Mount Zion, the Church of the Holy Apostles of History, instead of facing, according to established custom, toward the Temple Mount in plain view, at least in the First century, faces to the north, to Golgotha. But it facing exactly between the two Golgothas. So you can take your choice.

== See also ==
*[[Christmas in the Holy Land: an essay]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.conservativenewsandviews.com/2011/05/07/clergy/journey-to-israel-day-1/ Journey to Israel, Day One]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zegXBwGBPZs Video: Israeli Govenrment licenced tour guide at work, English, Tagalog, Hebrew]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russia and the U.S.]

[[category:Israel]]
[[Category:Tourism]]

Israel Tourism

2013-03-04T17:55:09Z

BertSchlossberg: /* See also */

Israel Tourism

2013-03-04T17:54:40Z

BertSchlossberg: /* See also */

==The Setting==
From the snowy Peak of Mt. Hermon in the northern Galilee, through the lush greenery around the blue waters of Sea of [[Galilee]], the [[Kinneret]], to the heights of God drenched Jerusalem, down the shores of the Dead Sea, through the Negev Desert, to the southern tip of the resort town of Eilat on the sparkling Gulf of [[Aqaba]], Israel is a quilt work and a Mosaic of experiences for the Tourist to Israel.

Its 8,630 sq. miles and size about that of New Jersey, has varieties of temperature and terrain as does the State of California. Its 7 million potpourri of peoples, from over 100 countries on 5 continents combined with their religions of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and [[Druze]], or of no religion whatever, provide for the tourist a heady delight to experience and much food for thought. And a musical confluence of Hebrew and Arabic, and Ethiopian and Russian, French, English, Spanish, Persian, Turkish, Portuguese, a number of Indian dialects from the recently found and immigrated exiled Northern Tribe of Israel tribe of Northern India, the [[Bnei Menashe]] (the sons of [[Manasseh]]).

==Tourism History and Activity==

Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, tourism could be characterized as primarily pilgrimage. Pilgrims, Christians in the main, had been coming to the Holy Land to visit the sites associated with the life of Jesus Christ. These sites were, by and large, under the custodianship of the major Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches - Roman Catholic, Greek and Russian Orthodox, and Armenian were the most prominent. These churches, with the Anglican, had, during Ottoman times, gained ownership or control of key tracks of land on which they had erected buildings to house their respective pilgrims. Even today, these Churches still own these properties, leasing them out to the Israeli Government. The Russian Compound in the center of West Jerusalem which is now leased by the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to the Israeli government for the use of the Central Jerusalem Police Station, the Circuit Court and other government ministries, was, in the late 1800's, the center for Russian Otrthodox pilgrimage. Likewise, the Greek Orthodox Church owns the land on which the Knesset (Parliament) and the Presidential House are situated.

With the rise of the State of Israel, pilgrimage gradually gave place to a more general interest in Israel as a nation and as a people - "tourism" as we know it today. With the influx of Protestant visitors from all over the world conversant with the Bible, the Land as a whole and the places "where Jesus walked" began to attract attention along with the traditional holy sites and churches. The rise of archeology and the intensification of the discovery of the actual sites mentioned in the Bible, with, now, the support of the Israeli Department of Antiquities, broadened "pilgrimage" into "tourism". People now wanted to see the places that they had read about in the Bible, and now, thanks to the archaeological endeavor, had been made accessible. "Support for Israel" played its part, too, as greater numbers of Evangelical Churches, along with the Jewish communities of the Diaspora, saw that being faithful to the God of Israel entailed faithfulness also to the new nation of Israel, itself a fulfillment of prophesy. And it is so today. In the times of the the most turmoil and threat of war and terrorism (see [[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]), such as during the two [[Intifada]]s, and the most recent "[[Second Lebanon War]]", it has been the Evangelical Churches which have enabled the continuance of the Israel tourist industry.

Tourism today, cresting on an over 20% increase in 2007 than in 2006, is a rapidly developing movement still holding its place, having displaced the diamond cutting industry, and now second to the "High Tech" industry in providing revenue for the State of Israel. Muslim nations still not having diplomatic relations with State of Israel, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, now have a steady stream of tourism and it is not infrequent that Israeli tour guides learn their languages. But there too, it is largely the small evangelical minorities of these nations, however great the numbers, that are providing the tourists. Some Nigerian states are now almost completely sponsoring their Christians, Catholic and Protestant, making it possible for them to make pilgrimage to Israel, just as other Nigerian states are sponsoring their people for the [[Haj]] to Mecca. The Jewish communities of the United States bring large numbers of their youth to Israel through the "BirthRight" program enabling them to "taste" Israel and in the process, to do as the other tourists do -- tour Israel. Russians are now a common sight in the tourist hotels. This time, they come as curious tourists, not as Orthodox (in the main) pilgrims, and are guided by Russian speaking new immigrants to Israel, driven in buses owned by other Russian new Israelis. Tours to Israel, nowadays, are organized and promoted not only by the traditional tourist agencies abroad, but large churches and well known Christian pastors and "media magnets" are the new tourism promoters and organizers. It is considered now as part of their ministry. P

==The Tour Agenda==

Tourists usually enter Israel through Ben Gurion International airport, but other possibilities are through either Jordon or Egypt if either of these countries are also being visited prior to Israel. If entrance is through Jordon, tourists enter Israel through the King Hussein bridge (Allenby bridge) or the Sheikh Hussein bridge. If Egypt is visited prior to Israel, entrance is through the Taba border into the resort town of [[Eilat]]. At these entrances, the tour bus is waiting. If in the morning or early afternoon, the tour begins immediately, and if in the late afternoon, tourists are brought to their hotels. A day's touring usually ends at anywhere between 5pm and 7:30 pm - depending on the itinerary for the day and the size and interests of the group. The morning tour will begin after breakfast at anywhere from 7:30 am to 8:30 am.

The tour either begins to the north, around the Sea of Galilee taking in the sights connected with the life and ministry of Jesus, or at Jerusalem, taking in the sites connected with the last days of Jesus on earth (Bethlehem is included in the Jerusalem portion) , or, if the tour is primarily a Jewish group, visiting the sites connected with Judaism and the various Jewish communities. There are also tours connected with Islamic sites but these are rarer and arranged with specialized tour agencies from abroad. The usual tour may be anywhere from 6 to 10 days. There are usually side tours for the longer tours. These will extend the Sea of Galilee portion to include the Golan heights to the east of the Sea of Galilee and the area near Mt. Hermon with its streams and Tels to the north of the Sea of Galilee. The Jerusalem portion of the tour is extended to take in the Dead Sea to the south east of Jerusalem (the Dead Sea may be visited even on the shorter tours). Jericho is usually included on all tours as it is along the Jordon river corridor connecting the Jerusalem and Galilee sections. Tours to Israel may include a side trip to Petra in Jordon with entrance to Jordan accessed near Eilat and may include a side trip to Mt.Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, with entrance through the Taba border crossing . There are also specialized tours that may feature visits to archaeological sites or kibbutzim, as well as one or two day "cruise tours" with cruise ships making the circuit of the Aegean islands, Roades, Cyprus, Turkey, and visiting Israel with entrance and exit through the port of Ashdod.

==Today's Variegated Tourism==

===Tourism can be vertical===
Such as at Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Entering the room below that of the Last Supper of Jesus, one views the huge remembrance stone of King David from Crusader times. But behind the wall, one can see the niche in the wall at the exact height above the ground for the biblical scrolls to be placed. So this room was originally a synagogue. Walking around the outside of the room, one sees the "Herodian" stone blocks with their characteristic and tell-tale incised borders. So this room was originally built in the first century. And then you will be told by the Guide that an artillery shell from the 1948 War of Independence landed in the courtyard, shattering the successive layers of plaster, until the last layer, that did indeed extend down past the Ottoman Turk, Early Muslim, Crusader, Byzantine period levels, and ending with the original 1st century floor, was inscribed in first century Greek with prayers to Jesus. So this was a Jewish Christian synagogue, the first Church and home to the original Believers in Jesus before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The "Church House" that would later be called "The Holy Church of the Apostles" and the Mother of all Churches.

===Tourism can be horizontal===
Laid out before you in all directions, while one is in a "Jesus boat" (one of the touring attractions) on the gentle (most of the time) blue waters of the Sea of Galilee. There to the left on the eastern shore is the once fishing village of Tiberias, now the more fascinating home of the Shwarma in Pita, and rhythmic Eastern music. Following north you see the village of Migdal with its now red-roofed houses, which lent its name to one women resident who followed Jesus, her Master and her "deliverer". This was Mary Magdalena - Miriam from Migdal.

Going past the Kibbutz Ginosar, with its recently found and set on display fishing boat from the first century, the "Ancient Jesus boat" (prototype of the boat you are in), you follow along to the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, which will be visited in the afternoon, where can be seen the Church of Mensa Christi (the "Table of Christ") commemorating the place where the resurrected Jesus cooked a fish breakfast for his disciples. But at the side of the Church, for the skeptics among us, one sees the first century steps going down to the shore and the lapping waters, that until 1964 (when Israel re-routed a water channel) were fed for thousands of years by a warm water spring that was a focal point of attraction for the Tilapia, also known as St. Peter's fish, or Amnon in Hebrew, or Musht in Arabic. This is where the fishing was great in the First Century.

Up on a hill behind the Church of Mensa Christi, all on the North Shore, is the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave "the Sermon on the Mount", and there, down below is the home town (for a while, at least) of Peter and Andrew - [[Capernaum]], with its imposing and truly gorgeous, white limestone remains of the 3rd century Synagogue, built on the remains (black basalt) and general floor plans of the First century synagogue that Jesus frequented and proclaimed, "I am the Bread of Life".

And to the right, on the Eastern shore, there are sights to see, such as Kursi, with its ruins of a Byzantine monastery, the only place where the herd of Swine could have rushed down the slope into the sea without having fallen off the otherwise-all-around sharp and tall precipice, the slope of [[Gadarene]] where Jesus drove out the demons that then entered the swine.

===Tourism can be "military"===
As you ride past the teenage kids in uniform going back to their bases anywhere in Israel, after being at home on the weekend, Israel is so small. Or as the tourist bus passes to the left of a tank convoy up from the Negev on the way to the Lebanese border, only to be stopped by a herd of sheep and their Bedouin shepherd crossing the main highway. Or by the lone soldier guarding 20 or so M-16s amd Uzi machine guns by the river feeder to the Jordon while in the river nearby a mass of screaming girl soldiers (and guys), let out on 2 week a year vacation, rafting without weapons with you down the white waters (bubbly froth) of the Nahal Hatzbani with its over-hanging and leafy trees and intermittent beaches (sand stops) to eat along the way. The Hatzbani, along with two other tributaries will lead you to the upper Jordon River, which will lead to the Sea of Galilee, which will lead to the "Jordan River", which will lead to the Dead Sea, which will lead, in the form of evaporated water (the Dead Sea having no outlet) to Heaven.

==The Panorama of Tourism==

Tourism can take you in a few short hours of whirlwind:

to the early centuries Nabatean strong hold of Avdat in the Negev desert.

To the white cliffs (and cable car) of Rosh HaNikra at the Northern tip of Israel where it meets the Lebanese border. White Cliffs lapped by the Mediterranean forging deep caverns at water's edge to enter.

To the magnificent civilization upon civilization Tel of Bet Shean, at the Jordan River entrance to the Jezreel Valley, upon which King Saul's body was hung by the Philistines, and which later became a built up Roman Colony, with all its bathhouses. Or Tel Dan with its altar to rival Jerusalem from the time of the divided Kingdom and with its earlier Bronze age entrance from the time of Abraham, or Tel Hazor with its casement walls protection which Joshua burned and from which Barak, later in the time of Deborah, would come down to defeat Sisera, or Tel Beer Sheva intimately associated with the events of Abraham, Tel Arad which stood in the way of Israel entering Canaan, Tel Megiddo with its protected water tunnel that one can go through, or Tel Lachish which Sennacharib of Assyria burnt.

To the Ultra-Orthodox section (no driving on the Sabbath!) of Jerusalem, called One Hundred Gates (or Measures), Mea Shearim, where the lives and the looks and locks (of hair), the customs and the smells bring you back to the synagogues and streets of 18th century Eastern Europe.

To the Bedouin tents surrounded with camels and children and black veiled women, where you can enter (has to be arranged) and sit on carpets and drink, sip, drops of coffee in a thimble container and no longer wonder, as you catch a T.V. from the corner of your eye, why there are antennas sticking out from the tops of the tents.

To the Orthodox monastery at the steep side of Wadi Kelt in the Desert, the Wadi that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho and the Dead Sea

To Jericho, to the walls of Jericho (What's left of them), and to the Dead Sea, where you can relax on your back reading a newspaper in the saltiest and most buoyant waters in the world, where there is more relaxing and sedating bromide in the oxygen of the air than anywhere else in the world, 1,378 feet below sea level, the lowest point on earth.

To Masada, on cable car, the high hill fortress by the Dead Sea, built up by King Herod from Hasmonean ruins to become his fortress against the Nabateans, Cleopatra of Egypt, and against his own subjects, where the Jews held out against the Romans after Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D, and committed suicide rather than surrender, and where in Modern Israel civilians were inducted into the Israeli Army - "Masada to fall never again!"

To Herodion, the cone shaped fortress built by King Herod just north of Bethlehem, from which he sent its garrison down the short distance to kill the Child King destined to destroy his own Kingdom and his power.

To Bethlehem itself with its Church of the Holy Nativity and the Shepherd's field so familiar to the imagination and memory from Scripture and Carol and so "provocative" to
what is in the soul of light and awe for those who treasure Christ.

To Golgotha in Jerusalem, just outside of the gates of First Century Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world and where He rose from the dead. To either one of the Golgothas, take your choice, the traditional Church of the Holy Sepulchre Golgotha, or "Gordon's Calvary" Golgotha. They each have something to say for them. For the skeptics among us. The First Church in the World, the Jewish-Christian Synagogue on Mount Zion, the Church of the Holy Apostles of History, instead of facing, according to established custom, toward the Temple Mount in plain view, at least in the First century, faces to the north, to Golgotha. But it facing exactly between the two Golgothas. So you can take your choice.

== See also ==
*[[Christmas in the Holy Land: an essay]]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russian and the U.S.]

==External Links==
*[http://www.conservativenewsandviews.com/2011/05/07/clergy/journey-to-israel-day-1/ Journey to Israel, Day One]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zegXBwGBPZs Video: Israeli Govenrment licenced tour guide at work, English, Tagalog, Hebrew]

[[category:Israel]]
[[Category:Tourism]]

Immigration

2013-03-04T17:52:54Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

'''Immigration''' is the entry of a person of a certain nationality to another nation. Most [[immigrants]] use immigration to escape from conditions of poverty, persecution, or overpopulation in their home countries, or to respond to better opportunity and reunite their families in the new country.

==US Immigration history==
===Colonial America===
There is a londstanding belief that the United States of America is a country of immigrants, often used as an argument in favor of [[illegal immigration]] by [[liberals]]. The truth, however, is that most of the migration to the U.S. in the colonial era came from Britain, with English, Scots and (Protestant) Irish. They moved inside the Empire and did not leave their native country for a foreign land, so they are not considered "immigrants" any more than a person who moves from Florida to Alaska today.

A large number of [[German American|German immigrants]] came to Pennsylvania and New York. To this day they are called "Pennsylvania Dutch" but they were Germans, and came for religious freedom and economic opportunity. Dutch did come and settle in New Amsterdam (now New York), which was part of the Dutch Empire so they were not "immigrants" either. [[Black history|Black slaves]] were involuntary immigrants to all the colonies, especially the tobacco plantations of Virginia and Maryland, and the rice plantations of South Carolina. The [[American Revolution]] cut off movement from 1775 to 1783. When it resumed about 80,000 American Loyalists left the U.S. to immigrate to Canada, or return to Britain. Migration was light before 1815, because of wars in Europe. The import or export of slaves was made illegal in 1809.

===Early Nation: 1776-1860===
Historians have shown that in the nineteenth-century, the U.S. was a place where immigrants could stake their claims for a new life. After arrival, German and Irish immigrants settled regionally by nativity within the U.S. The Irish accounted for 68% of all immigrants to the Northeast; Germans accounted for 47% of all immigrants to the Midwest; British immigrants accounted for 19% of immigrants to the Northeast and 20% of immigrants to the Midwest. After arrival, the British, German, and Irish achieved success in U.S. labor markets, and the British and German immigrants found opportunity in skilled occupations. Irish Catholic immigrants did not fare as well as the other two groups in terms of jobs and economic status, but still fared better than had they remained in Ireland. Moreover, all groups sharply improved their average skills in the U.S. after arrival. Wages were much higher in the U.S. than in Europe, and it was much easier to own a farm. However, Americans worked much harder than their European cousins and took fewer holidays.

Cohn (2009) asks, "Did immigration help or hurt native labor and did migration lead to long run economic growth?" Immigration increased the long-run rate of economic growth. During the nineteenth century, immigration extended the U.S. product market and allowed labor in manufacturing and agriculture to specialize. Larger pools of unskilled labor after 1845 put downward pressure on wages. However, over time, labor markets adjusted, migrants assimilated, and the economy moved forward.

===Gilded Age: 1860-1900===
[[File:Welcome1880.jpg|thumb|left|560px]]
During the Gilded Age, 1865-1900, approximately 10 million European immigrants came to the United States, most in search of religious freedom and greater prosperity. They filled up the rich farmlands of the Middle West, as German and Scandinavian immigrants were especially eager to own land. They avoided the poverty stricken South. The population surge in major U.S. cities as a result of immigration gave cities an even stronger impact on government, attracting power-hungry politicians and entrepreneurs. Pressuring voters or falsifying ballots was commonplace for politicians, who often sought power only to exploit their constituents. To accommodate the influx of people into the U.S., the federal government built [[Ellis Island]] in 1892 near the [[Statue of Liberty]]. After 1892, a short physical examination was given; those with contagious diseases were not admitted. Few immigrants went to the poverty-stricken South.

''During the mass emigration from [[Italy]] during the century between 1876 to 1976, the U.S. was the largest single recipient of Italian immigrants in the world... In 1850, less than 4,000 Italians were reportedly in the U.S. However in 1880, merely four years after the influx of Italian immigrants migrated, the population skyrocketed to 44,000, and by 1900, 484,027.'' <ref> [http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Italian.html The Italians] </ref>

=== Chinese immigrants ===

The construction of the [[Central Pacific Railroad]] in [[California]] and [[Nevada]] was handled largely by American engineers and Chinese laborers. In the 1870 census there were 58,000 Chinese men and 4,000 women in the entire country; these numbers grew to 100,000 men and 4,000 women in the 1880 census. <ref> [http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/twps0029.html Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990]
</ref>
Labor unions such as the [[American Federation of Labor]] strongly opposed the presence of Chinese labor, by reason of both economic competition and race. Immigrants from China were not allowed to become citizens until 1950; however, their children born in the U.S. were full citizens.

Congress banned further Chinese immigration through the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] in 1882; act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the United States, but some students and businessmen were allowed in.
Subsequent to the act, the Chinese population declined to only 37,000 in 1940. Many returned to China (a greater proportion than most other immigrant groups) yet most of them stayed in the United States. Chinese people were unwelcome in many areas, so they resettled in the "[[Chinatown]]" districts of large cities.

==US Immigration Reform==
Most Americans envisage and advocate for a coherent set of national interest principles for immigration policy and the enforcement our Constitutionally derived laws. Some so-called ''open border advocates'' try to cloak themselves in the mantle of "immigration reform," but they fail to address the concerns of the American populace and detriments to foreign countries that lose people. Due to lack of enforcement, illegal immigration occurs widely in the U.S., especially along the Mexican border.

To some people the value of American citizenship has increased greatly since the founding of the Republic. There are 12 million illegal citizens living here in USA and it would be very costly to deport all these people. It becomes more complicated as they marry and have children which are then legal US citizens. There is a discussion of allowing these 12 million people to follow certain steps to become citizens that can pay taxes and become more contributing members of society. Some people view this as granting amnesty to criminals but do not offer an actual solution to the immigration problem.

==See also==
* [[Chinese Exclusion Act]]
* [[German Americans]]
* [[Illegal immigration]]
* [[Latinos]]
* [[Refugee]]
* [[Swedish Americans]]
* [[Racism]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.crfforum.org/topics/?topicid=35&catid=8&view=document&id=73 History of Immigration From the 1850s to the Present]
*[http://www.crfforum.org/topics/?topicid=35&catid=8&view=document&id=75 Issues of Illegal Immigration]
*[http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Chinese.html The Chinese]
*[http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Jewish.html The Jewish]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russia and the U.S.]

== References ==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
===Basic further reading===
* Archdeacon, Thomas J. ''Becoming American: An Ethnic History'' (1984), by leading conservative historian
* Barkan, Elliott Robert. ''And Still They Come: Immigrants and American Society, 1920 to the 1990s'' (1996), by leading historian
* Barkan, Elliott Robert, ed. ''A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America's Multicultural Heritage'' (1999), 600pp; essays by scholars on 27 groups
* Barone, Michael. ''The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again'' (2006), by a conservative expert [http://www.amazon.com/New-Americans-Melting-Work-Again/dp/1596980265/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242105562&sr=8-1 excerpts and text search]
* Bodnar, John. ''The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America'' (1985), liberal historian
* Daniels, Roger. ''Coming to America'' 2nd ed. (2005), liberal historian
* Dassanowsky, Robert, and Jeffrey Lehman, eds. ''Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America'' (2nd ed. 3 vol 2000), home school audience; covers 150 culture groups; 1974pp
* Gjerde, Jon, ed. ''Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History'' (1998) primary sources and excerpts from scholars.
* Glazier, Michael, ed. ''The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America'' (1999), articles by over 200 experts, covering both Catholics and Protestants.
* Levinson, David and Melvin Ember, eds. ''American Immigrant Cultures'' 2 vol (1997) covers all major and minor groups
* Meier, Matt S. and Gutierrez, Margo, eds. ''The Mexican American Experience: An Encyclopedia'' (2003) (ISBN 0-313-31643-0)
* Magocsi, Paul Robert. ''Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples'' (1999), 1350 pp; major compilation
* Thernstrom, Stephan, ed. ''Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups'' (1980) (ISBN 0-674-37512-2), the standard reference, covering all major groups and most minor groups; Thernstrom is a leading conservative historian [http://www.amazon.com/Harvard-Encyclopedia-American-Ethnic-Groups/dp/0674375122 excerpt and text search
* Wittke, carl. ''We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant'' (1939), 552pp good older history cover major groups [http://www.questia.com/library/book/we-who-built-america-the-saga-of-the-immigrant-by-carl-wittke.jsp online edition]

===Recent migrations===
* Adler, Leonore Loeb , and Uwe P.Gielen, eds. ''Migration: Immigration and Emigration in International Perspective.'' 2003 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106964953&oplinknum=16# online edition]
* Borjas, George J. "Does Immigration Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market?" ''Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2001'' [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001037127 online edition]
* Castles, Stephen, and Mark J. Miller. ''The Age of Migration, Third Edition: International Population Movements in the Modern World'' (2003)
* Glazier, Ira A. and Luigi De Rosa. ''Migration across Time and Nations: Population Mobility in Historical Contexts'' 1986 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99436087 online edition]
* Hernández, Kelly Lytle. “The Crimes and Consequences of Illegal Immigration: A Cross-Border Examination of Operation Wetback, 1943 to 1954,” ''Western Historical Quarterly'', 37 (Winter 2006), 421–44.
* Kemp, Paul. ''Goodbye Canada?'' (2003), from Canada to U.S.
* Khadria, Binod. ''The Migration of Knowledge Workers: Second-Generation Effects of India's Brain Drain,'' (2000)
* Massey, Douglas S. and J. Edward Taylor; ''International Migration: Prospects and Policies in a Global Market,'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109858153 online edition]
* Mullan, Fitzhugh. "The Metrics of the Physician Brain Drain." ''New England Journal of Medicine,'' Volume 353:1810-1818 October 27, 2005 Number 17 [http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/17/1810 online version]
* Ozden, Caglar, and Maurice Schiff. ''International Migration, Remittances, and Brain Drain.'' (2005)
* Palmer, Ransford W. ''In Search of a Better Life: Perspectives on Migration from the Caribbean'' Praeger Publishers, 1990 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27964376 online edition]
* Skeldon, Ronald, and Wang Gungwu; ''Reluctant Exiles? Migration from Hong Kong and the New Overseas Chinese'' 1994 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=87319971 online edition]
* Smith, Michael Peter, and Adrian Favell. ''The Human Face of Global Mobility: International Highly Skilled Migration in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific,'' (2006)

===Historical studies: world===
* Baines, D. ''Migration in a Mature Economy: Emigration and Internal Migration in England and Wales 1861–1900,'' (1985),
* Clark, P. and D. Souden. ''Migration and Society in Early Modern England'' (1987),
* Eltis, David, ed. ''Coerced and Free Migration: Global Perspectives'' 2002 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102986282 online edition] 447pp
* Gungwu, Wang, ed. ''Global History and Migrations'' 1997 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99440360# online edition] 309pp
* Langton, J. and G. Hoppe. ''Flows of Labour in the Early Phase of Capitalist Development: The Time Geography of Longitudinal Migration Paths in Nineteenth Century Sweden'' (1992),
* Lawton, R. "Mobility and Nineteenth Century British Cities", ''The Geographical Journal'', 145, (1979) 206–24.
* Luconi, Stefano. “Italians’ Global Migration: A Diaspora?,” ''Studi Emigrazione/Migration Studies'' (Rome), 43 (March 2006), 467–82. In English.
* Siddle, David J. ed ''Migration, Mobility, and Modernization'' 2000 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102335100 online edition] scholarly articles on European history
*Tilly, Charles. "Migration in Modern European History", in ''Time, Space and Man: Essays on Micro-Demography'', Stockholm. (1979)
* Wrigley, G. A. (1967), ‘The Simple Model of London's Importance in Changing English Society and Economy 1650–1750’, past and Present, 37, 44–70.
====Historical Studies: North America====
* Archdeacon, Thomas J. ''Becoming American: An Ethnic History'' (1984)
* Bankston, Carl L. III and Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo, eds. ''Immigration in U.S. History'' (2006)
* Bodnar, John. ''The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America'' (1985)
* Canada, ''Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration.'' (1885) primary documents for Canada (with reports on Chinatowns in U.S.) [http://books.google.com/books?id=w3gkAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA288&dq=inauthor:Immigration+inauthor:Commission&num=30#PPA7,M1 online edition]
* Cohn, Raymond L. ''Mass Migration under Sail: European Immigration to the Antebellum United States'' (2009) 254 pp.; emphasis on economic issues
* Daniels, Roger. ''Coming to America'' 2nd ed. (2005)
* Daniels, Roger. ''Guarding the Golden Door : American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882'' (2005)
* Eltis, David; ''Coerced and Free Migration: Global Perspectives'' (2002) emphasis on migration to Americas before 1800
* Gjerde, Jon, ed. ''Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History'' (1998) primary sources and excerpts from scholars.
* Glazier, Michael, ed. ''The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America'' (1999), articles by over 200 experts, covering both Catholics and Protestants.
* Green, Alan G. and Gree David. "The Goals of Canada's Immigration Policy: A Historical Perspective" ''Canadian Journal of Urban Research,'' Vol. 13, 2004 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5006533123 online version]
* Hoerder, Dirk and Horst Rössler, eds. ''Distant Magnets: Expectations and Realities in the Immigrant Experience, 1840-1930'' 1993 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=78762133 online edition] 312pp
* Hourwich, Isaac. ''Immigration and Labor: The Economic Aspects of European Immigration to the United States'' (1912) [http://books.google.com/books/pdf/Immigration_and_Labor.pdf?vid=OCLC00593905&id=PLQJAAAAIAAJ&output=pdf&sig=ieLK3Ab3sc9gGdFaxXxOKQle3B8 full text online], argues immigrants were beneficial to natives by pushing them upward
* Jenks, Jeremiah W. and W. Jett Lauck, ''The Immigrant Problem'' (1912; 6th ed. 1926) [http://books.google.com/books?id=XbCHyzEa_O8C&pg=PR3&dq=inauthor:Jenks+inauthor:Lauck&num=30 online edition of Jenkc and Lauck] based on 1911 Immigration Commission report, with additional data
* Kulikoff, Allan; ''From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers'' (2000), details on colonial immigration
* LeMay, Michael, and Elliott Robert Barkan. ''U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Laws and Issues: A Documentary History'' (1999) 340 pgs. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6846180&oplinknum=2 online edition]
* Miller, Kerby M. ''Emigrants and Exiles'' (1985), influential scholarly interpretation of Irish immigration
* Motomura, Hiroshi. ''Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States'' (2006), legal history
* Thernstrom, Stephan, ed. ''Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups'' (1980) (ISBN 0-674-37512-2), the standard reference, covering all major groups and most minor groups
* U.S. Immigration Commission, ''Abstracts of Reports,'' 2 vols. (1911); the full 42-volume report is summarized (with additional information) in vol 1-2; see also Jencks and Lauck
** ''Reports of the Immigration Commission: Statements'' (1911) text of statements pro and con [http://books.google.com/books?id=DSISAAAAIAAJ&printsec=toc&dq=inauthor:Immigration+inauthor:Commission&num=30 online edition]
** ''Part 8: Leather Industry'' (1911) [http://books.google.com/books?id=ao0SAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=inauthor:Immigration+inauthor:Commission&num=30#PPP7,M1 online edition]
* Wittke, Carl. ''We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant'' (1939), covers all major groups [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=10024497 online edition]
* Yans-McLaughlin, Virginia ed. ''Immigration Reconsidered: History, Sociology, and Politics'' (1990)

==Recent immigration to North America==
* Borjas, George J. ed. ''Issues in the Economics of Immigration'' (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report) (2000) 9 statistical essays by scholars;
* Borjas, George J. "Welfare Reform and Immigrant Participation in Welfare Programs" ''International Migration Review'' 2002 36(4): 1093-1123. ISSN 0197-9183; finds very steep decline of immigrant welfare participation in California.
* Briggs, Vernon M., Jr. ''Immigration Policy and the America Labor Force'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.
* Briggs, Vernon M., Jr. ''Mass Immigration and the National Interest'' (1992)
* Fawcett, James T., and Benjamin V. Carino. ''Pacific Bridges: The New Immigration from Asia and the Pacific Islands'' . New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1987.
* Foner, Nancy. ''In A New Land: A Comparative View Of Immigration'' (2005)
* Levinson, David and Melvin Ember, eds. ''American Immigrant Cultures'' 2 vol (1997) covers all major and minor groups
* Meier, Matt S. and Gutierrez, Margo, eds. ''The Mexican American Experience: An Encyclopedia'' (2003) (ISBN 0-313-31643-0)
* Portes, Alejandro, and Robert L. Bach. ''Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States.'' University of California Press, 1985.
* Portes, Alejandro, and Jozsef Borocz. "Contemporary Immigration: Theoretical Perspectives on Its Determinants and Modes of Incorporation." ''International Migration Review'' 23 (1989): 606-30.
* Portes, Alejandro, and Ruben Rumbaut. ''Immigrant America''. University of California Press, 1990.
* Reimers, David. ''Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America'' Columbia University Press, (1985).
* Smith, James P, and Barry Edmonston, eds. ''The Immigration Debate: Studies on the Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration'' (1998), [http://www.nap.edu online version]

===Current data===
* Arthur Haupt and Thomas T. Kane. ''Population Handbook,'' (Population Reference Bureau: 5th ed 2004) [http://www.prb.org/Reports/2004/PopulationHandbook5thedition.aspx online edition]

===Advanced theoretical models===
* Grigg, D. "E. G. Ravenstein and the Laws of Migration" ''Journal of Historical Geography,'' vol 3, (1977), 41–54.
* Lee, E. S. (1966), ‘A Theory of Migration’, Demography, 3, 47–54.
* Massey, Douglas S. "Theories of international migration: A review and appraisal." ''Population and Development Review,'' (1994). 19, 431-466. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0098-7921(199309)19:3%3C431:TOIMAR%3E2.0.CO;2-P in JSTOR]
* Ravenstein, E. G. "The Laws of Migration", ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society,'' vol 48 (1885) pp 167–227.
* Ravenstein, E. G. "The Laws of Migration", ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society,'' vol 52 (1889) pp 214–301. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0952-8385(188906)52%3A2%3C241%3ATLOM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B online at JSTOR]
* Stouffer, S. A. ‘Intervening Opportunities: a Theory Relating Mobility and Distance’, American Sociological Review, (1940) vol 5, 845–67.
* Wolpert, J. (1965), ‘Behavioural Aspects of the Decision to Migrate’, Papers of the Regional Science Association, 15, 159–73.
* Zelinsky, Wilbur. "The Hypothesis of the Mobility Transition", ''Geographical Review'', 61, (1971) 219–49.

[[category:Immigration]]
[[category:United States History]]
[[category:Gilded Age]]

Egypt

2013-03-04T17:51:25Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

{{Country
|name =''جمهورية مصر العربية ''Gumhūriyyat Misr al-Arabiyyah'''
|map =Egypt rel97.jpg
|map2 =Location of Egypt.png
|flag =Flag of Egypt.png
|arms =Arms of Egypt.png
|capital =Cairo
|capital-raw =
|government =Semi-Presidential republic
|government-raw =
|language =Arabic
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Mohamed Morsi
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Hescham Kandil
|pm-raw =
|area =386,660 sq mi
|pop =82,079,000
|pop-basis =2011
|gdp =
|gdp-year =$329.791 billion (2006)
|gdp-pc =$4,836 (2006)
|currency =Egyptian pound
|idd =
|tld =
}}

'''Egypt''' is a country located in north-east [[Africa]], and is the site of one of the oldest recorded civilizations on earth. Egypt is currently ruled by the [[Muslim Brotherhood]], after [[Hosni Mubarak]] left office under international pressure.

==Name==
The name "Egypt" is derived from the [[Greek language|Greek]] word ''Aígyptos'' (Αίγυπτος), which was possibly a corruption from the compound word ''Aegaeon uptiōs'' (''Aίγαίου υπτίως''), meaning "below the Aegean" (Strabo). Ancient Egyptians referred to their land as ''Kemet'' ("black land"), in reference to the black [[silt]] deposited by the annual [[Nile]] [[flood]]s.

"Misr" (مصر)is the modern [[Arabic]] name for Egypt, which is based upon the [[Hebrew]] word "Mizraim" (מִצְרַיִם); the ancient Hebrews referred to Egypt as the "land of Mizraim" after the founder of that country.

==Geography==
[[File:Taba Heights Egypt.jpg|left|180px]]
Egypt has four main regions: the Eastern and Western Deserts, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Nile Valley and Delta, where about 99 percent of population lives. Modest amounts of [[rain]]fall occur along the Mediterranean coast; rainfall throughout the remainder of the country is minimal to nonexistent.

 
 
 

==People==
Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab-speaking world and the second-most populous on the African Continent. Nearly all of the country's 79 million people live in [[Cairo]] and [[Alexandria]]; elsewhere on the banks of the Nile; in the Nile delta, which fans out north of Cairo; and along the [[Suez Canal]]. These regions are among the world's most densely populated, containing an average of over 3,820 persons per square mile (1,540 per sq. km.), as compared to 181 persons per sq. mi. for the country as a whole.
[[Image:Egypt shop owner.jpg|left]]
Small communities spread throughout the [[desert]] regions of Egypt are clustered around oases and historic trade and transportation routes. The government has tried with mixed success to encourage migration to newly [[irrigation|irrigated]] land reclaimed from the desert. However, the proportion of the population living in rural areas has continued to decrease as people move to the cities in search of employment and a higher standard of living.

The Egyptians are a fairly homogeneous people of Hamitic origin. Mediterranean and Arab influences appear in the north, and there is some mixing in the south with the Nubians of northern [[Sudan]]. Ethnic minorities include a small number of [[Bedouin]] Arab nomads in the eastern and western deserts and in the [[Sinai]], as well as some 50,000-100,000 Nubians clustered along the Nile in Upper (southern) Egypt.

The literacy rate is about 58% of the adult population. Education is free through university and compulsory from ages six through 15. Rates for primary and secondary education have strengthened in recent years. Ninety-three percent of [[children]] enter [[primary school]] today, compared with 87% in 1994. Major universities include Cairo University (100,000 students), Alexandria University, and the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar University, one of the world's major centers of Islamic learning.

Egypt's vast and rich [[literature]] constitutes an important cultural element in the life of the country and in the Arab-speaking world as a whole. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Egyptian literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Egyptian to win the [[Nobel prize]] for literature. Egyptian books and films are available throughout the Middle East.
*Population (July 2006 est.): 78,887,007.
*Annual growth rate (2006 est.): 1.75%.
*Ethnic groups: Egyptian, Bedouin Arab, Nubian.
*Religions: Muslim 94%, Coptic Christian and other 6%.
*Languages: Arabic (official), English, French.
*Education: Years compulsory--ages 6-15. Literacy--total adult: 58%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate (2006 est.)--31.33 deaths/1,000 live births. Life expectancy (2006 est.): 71 years.

==Government and Political Conditions==
[[File:Mohamed Morsi Egypt.jpg|thumb|left|Radical new President Mohamed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood.]]
[[File:Hassan Mohamed Hassan Egypt Breaking Chains.jpg|thumb|Hassan Mohamed Hassan, Egypt Breaking Chains.]]
The Egyptian Constitution provides for a strong executive. Authority is vested in an elected president who can appoint one or more vice presidents, a prime minister, and a cabinet. The president's term runs for 6 years. Egypt's legislative body, the People's Assembly, has 454 members--444 popularly elected and 10 appointed by the president. The constitution reserves 50% of the assembly seats for "workers and peasants." The assembly sits for a 5-year term but can be dissolved earlier by the President. There also is a 264-member Shura (consultative) Council, in which 88 members are appointed and 174 elected for 6-year terms. Below the national level, authority is exercised by and through governors and mayors appointed by the central government and by popularly elected local councils.

Opposition party organizations make their views public and represent their followers at various levels in the political system, but power is concentrated in the hands of the President and the National Democratic Party majority in the People's Assembly and those institutions dominate the political system. In addition to the ruling National Democratic Party, there are 18 other legally recognized parties, whereas in 2004 there were only 16 other legally recognized parties.

The November 2000 elections were generally considered to have been more transparent and better executed than past elections, because of universal judicial monitoring of polling stations. On the other hand, opposition parties continue to lodge credible complaints about electoral manipulation by the government. There are significant restrictions on the political process and freedom of expression for non-governmental organizations, including professional syndicates and organizations promoting respect for human rights.

Progress was seen in the September 2005 presidential elections when parties were allowed to field candidates against President Mubarak and his National Democratic Party. In early 2005, President Mubarak proposed amending the constitution to allow, for the first time in Egypt's history, competitive, multi-candidate elections. An amendment was drafted by parliament and approved by public referendum in late May 2005. In September 2005, President Mubarak was reelected, according to official results, with 88% of the vote. His two principal challengers, Ayman Nour and No'man Gom'a, took 7% and 3% of the vote respectively.

Egypt's judicial system is based on European (primarily French) legal concepts and methods. Under the Mubarak government, the courts have demonstrated increasing independence, and the principles of due process and judicial review have gained greater respect. The legal code is derived largely from the Napoleonic Code. Marriage and personal status (family law) are primarily based on the religious law of the individual concerned, which for most Egyptians is Islamic Law (Sharia).

===Principal Government Officials===
*President-- Mohamed Morsi
*Vice President--
*Prime Minister--
*Interior Minister--
*Minister of Foreign Affairs--
*Ambassador to the United States--Ambassador
*Permanent Representative to the United Nations--Ambassador

===Foreign Relations===
Geography, population, history, military strength, and diplomatic expertise give Egypt extensive political influence in the Middle East and within the Non-Aligned Movement as a whole. Cairo has been a crossroads of Arab commerce and culture for millennia, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development.
[[File:Avenue of Sphinxes Egypt.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Avenue of Sphinxes.]]
The Arab League headquarters is in Cairo, and the Secretary General of the League is traditionally an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amre Moussa is the present Secretary General of the Arab League. Ex-President Mubarak has often chaired the African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity). Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.

Egypt is a key partner in the search for peace in the Middle East and resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sadat's groundbreaking trip to Israel in 1977, the 1978 Camp David Accords, and the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty represented a fundamental shift in the politics of the region--from a strategy of confrontation to one of peace as a strategic choice. Egypt was subsequently ostracized by other Arab states and ejected from the Arab League from 1979 to 1989. Egypt played an important role in the negotiations leading to the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991, which, under U.S. and Russian sponsorship, brought together all parties in the region to discuss Middle East peace. This support has continued to the present, with Ex-President Mubarak often intervening personally to promote peace negotiations. In 1996, he hosted the Sharm El-Sheikh "Summit of the Peacemakers" attended by President Clinton and other world leaders. In 2000, he hosted two summits at Sharm El-Sheikh and one at Taba in an effort to resume the Camp David negotiations suspended in July of 2000, and in June 2003, Mubarak hosted President Bush for another summit on the Middle East peace process. Throughout mid-2004, Egypt worked closely with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to facilitate stability following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, which occurred in August and September of 2005. Prior to this Egypt and Israel reached an agreement that allowed Egypt to deploy additional forces along the Philadelphi Corridor in an attempt to control the border and prevent the smuggling of weapons.

Egypt played a key role during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis. Ex-President Mubarak helped assemble the international coalition and deployed 35,000 Egyptian troops against Iraq to liberate Kuwait. The Egyptian contingent was the third-largest in the coalition forces, after the U.S. and U.K. In the aftermath of the Gulf war, Egypt signed the Damascus declaration with Syria and the Gulf states to strengthen Gulf security. Egypt continues to contribute regularly to UN peacekeeping missions, most recently in East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. In August 2004, Egypt was actively engaged in seeking a solution to the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, including the dispatch of military monitors. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Egypt, which has itself been the target of terrorist attacks, has been a key supporter of the U.S. war against terrorists and terrorist organizations such as Osama bin Ladin and al-Qaeda, and actively supported the Iraqi Governing Council, as well as the subsequent government of Prime Minister Allawi. In July 2005, terrorists attacked the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh. In the same month, Egypt's envoy to Iraq was assassinated.

In the tenue of [[Mohammed Morsi]], the relations to [[Iran]] were improved.<ref>http://frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/the-emerging-egyptian-iranian-strategic-alliance/</ref>

==Defense==
Egypt's armed forces, among the largest in the region, include the army, air defense, air force, and navy. The armed forces inventory includes equipment from the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the former Soviet Union. Equipment from the former Soviet Union is being progressively replaced by more modern American, French, and British equipment, a significant portion of which is built under license in Egypt. To bolster stability and moderation in the region, Egypt has provided military assistance and training to a number of African and Arab states. Egypt remains a strong military and strategic partner of the United States.

==Economy==
[[File:Egypt The Nile in Cairo.jpg|thumb|left|340px|The Nile in Cairo.]]
With the installation of the 2004 Egyptian parliament, the Government of Egypt began a new reform movement, following a stalled economic reform program begun in 1991, but moribund since the mid-1990s. In the past year, the cabinet economic team has simplified and reduced tariffs and taxes, improved the transparency of the national budget, revived stalled privatizations of public enterprises and implemented economic legislation designed to foster private sector-driven economic growth and improve Egypt's competitiveness. Despite these achievements, the economy is still hampered by government intervention, substantial subsidies for food, housing, and energy, and bloated public sector payrolls. Moreover, the public sector still controls most heavy industry.

In sectoral terms, agriculture is mainly in private hands, and has been largely deregulated, with the exception of cotton and sugar production. Construction, non-financial services, and domestic marketing are also largely private. The Egyptian economy, however, relies heavily on tourism, oil and gas exports, and Suez Canal revenues, much of which is controlled by the public sector and is also vulnerable to outside factors. The tourism sector suffered tremendously following a terrorist attack in Luxor in October 1997. The tourism sector feared a repeat of the downturn in tourist numbers when terrorists attacked resorts in the Sinai Peninsula in 2004 and 2005. So far, however, the sector has not suffered as greatly as expected.

The U.S. has a large assistance program in Egypt and provides funding for a variety of programs in addition to some cash transfers. A portion of U.S. assistance to Egypt under the 2003 Iraq war supplemental appropriations was provided in the form of bond guarantees, which were contingent upon Egyptian compliance with a series of economic conditions. Egypt met the conditions and in September 2005 issued $1.25 billion in 10-year bonds that were fully guaranteed by the United States. To support the Middle East peace process through regional economic integration, the United States permits products to be imported from Egypt without tariffs if they have been produced in Qualified Industrial Zones and 11.7% of the inputs of these products originate from Israel.
*GDP (2005 est.): $303 billion.
*Annual growth rate (2005 est.): 4.8%.
*Per capita GDP (2005 est.): $4,282.
*Natural resources: Petroleum and natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc.
*Agriculture: Products--cotton, rice, onions, beans, citrus fruits, wheat, corn, barley, sugar.
*Industry: Types--food processing, textiles, chemicals, petrochemicals, construction, light manufacturing, iron and steel products, aluminum, cement, military equipment.
*Trade (FY 2005): Exports--$14.3 billion: petroleum, clothing and textiles, cotton, fruits and vegetables, manufactured goods. *Major markets--EU, U.S., Middle East, Japan. Imports--$24.1 billion: machinery and transport equipment, petroleum products, livestock, food and beverages, paper and wood products, chemicals. Major suppliers--EU, U.S., Japan.

===Agriculture===
Approximately one-third of Egyptian labor is engaged directly in farming, and many others work in the processing or trading of agricultural products. Nearly all of Egypt’s agricultural production takes place in some 2.5 million hectares (6 million acres) of fertile soil in the Nile Valley and Delta. Some desert lands are being developed for agriculture, including the ambitious Toshka project in Upper Egypt, but some other fertile lands in the Nile Valley and Delta are being lost to urbanization and erosion.
[[File:Egyptian Countryside.jpg|left|400px]]
Warm weather and plentiful water permit several crops a year. Further improvement is possible, but land is worked intensively and yields are high. Cotton, rice, wheat, corn, sugarcane, sugar beets, onions, and beans are the principal crops. Increasingly, a few modern operations are producing fruits, vegetables and flowers, in addition to cotton, for export. While the desert hosts some large, modern farms, more common traditional farms occupy one acre each, typically in a canal-irrigated area along the banks of the Nile. Many small farmers also have cows, water buffaloes, and chicken, although larger modern farms are becoming more important.

The United States is a major supplier of wheat, corn, and soybean products to Egypt, almost all through commercial sales. Egypt is, in fact, traditionally the U.S.'s largest market for wheat sales. U.S. agricultural sales to Egypt average $1 billion annually. U.S. food assistance programs to Egypt ended in 1992 as Egypt became more prosperous. Egypt continues to receive modest food assistance through the World Food Program and from France.

"Egypt," wrote the Greek historian Herodotus 25 centuries ago, "is the gift of the Nile." The land's seemingly inexhaustible resources of water and soil carried by this mighty river created in the Nile Valley and Delta the world's most extensive [[oasis]]. Without the Nile, Egypt would be little more than a desert wasteland.

The river carves a narrow, cultivated floodplain, never more than 20 kilometers wide, as it travels northward toward Cairo from Lake Nasser on the Sudanese border, behind the Aswan High Dam. Just north of Cairo, the Nile spreads out over what was once a broad estuary that has been filled by riverine deposits to form a fertile delta about 250 kilometers wide (150 mi.) at the seaward base and about 160 kilometers (96 mi.) from south to north.

Before the construction of dams on the Nile, particularly the Aswan High Dam (started in 1952, completed in 1970), the fertility of the Nile Valley was sustained by the water flow and the silt deposited by the annual flood. Sediment is now obstructed by the Aswan High Dam and retained in Lake Nasser. The interruption of yearly, natural fertilization and the increasing salinity of the soil has been a manageable problem resulting from the dam. The benefits remain impressive: more intensive farming on millions of acres of land made possible by improved irrigation, prevention of flood damage, and the generation of billions of low-cost kilowatt hours of electricity.

The Western Desert accounts for about two-thirds of the country's land area. For the most part, it is a massive sandy plateau marked by seven major depressions. One of these, Fayoum, was connected about 3,600 years ago to the Nile by canals. Today, it is an important irrigated agricultural area.

===Natural Resources===
[[Image:Woman bread egypt.jpg|290px|right]]
In addition to the agricultural capacity of the Nile Valley and Delta, Egypt's natural resources include petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, and iron ore. Crude oil is found primarily in the Gulf of Suez and in the Western Desert. Natural gas is found mainly in the Nile Delta, off the Mediterranean seashore, and in the Western Desert. Oil and gas accounts for approximately 12% of GDP. Export of petroleum and related products (including bunker and aviation sales) amounted to $2.7 billion in fiscal year 2003-04.

Crude oil production has been in decline for several years, from a high of more than 920,000 barrels per day (BPD) in 1995 to less than 662,000 BPD as of April 2006. To minimize the growing domestic demand of petroleum products, currently estimated at 25 million metric tons per year, Egypt is encouraging the production of natural gas. Over a 5-year period, production of natural gas increased by approximately 75% to reach about 3.3 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) by the end of FY 2003/04. Currently, gas accounts for almost 50% of all hydrocarbon usage in Egypt.

Over the last 22 years, more than 230 oil and gas exploration agreements have been signed and multinational oil companies spent more than $27 billion in exploration companions. As of September 2003, crude oil reserves were estimated at 2.8 billion barrels, and proven natural gas reserves were estimated at 62 trillion cubic feet (TCF) with probable additional reserves totaling another 40-60 TCF. Texas-based Apache Oil Company is the largest American investor in Egypt, with a total investment of more than $2.8 billion since 1996.

Egypt's excess of natural gas will more than meet its domestic demand for many years to come. The Ministry of Petroleum has determined that expanding the Egyptian petrochemical industry and increasing exports of natural gas as its most significant strategic objectives. As of September 2005, three liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains had been in operation. The first is in Damietta on the eastern side of the Delta and started exporting in early 2005. It is headed by the Spanish electric utility, Union Fenosa. The second LNG project is located at Idku on the western side of the Delta and started exporting in 2005. The first train started in April 2005, and the second in September. British Gas (BG) Group and the Malaysian state oil company Petronas are the major investors. Another project that will utilize gas for export and domestic consumption is the Mediterranean Gas Complex in Port Said where the Italian company AGIP and BP are the main shareholders. This facility will have a total cost of about $315 million and went on line in late 2004.

Egypt and Jordan established the Eastern Gas Company to export natural gas to Jordan, and then later to Syria and Lebanon. In summer 2003 Egypt began exporting gas to Jordan via a new pipeline from El Arish on Egypt’s north Sinai cost to Taba on the Gulf of Aqaba, and then underwater to the Jordanian city of Aqaba. Gas exports to Jordan generated gross revenues of approximately $60 million in 2003/04 and are currently reaching $85-100 million.

===Transport and Communication===
[[File:Cairo Nile River.jpg|thumb|250px|Cairo, Nile River.]]
Transportation facilities in Egypt are centered in Cairo and largely follow the pattern of settlement along the Nile. The main line of the nation's 4,800-kilometer (2,800-mi.) railway network runs from Alexandria to Aswan. The well-maintained road network has expanded rapidly to over 21,000 miles, covering the Nile Valley and Delta, Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts, the Sinai, and the Western oases.

Egypt Air provides reliable domestic air service to major tourist destinations from its Cairo hub, in addition to overseas routes. The Nile River system (about 1,600 km. or 1,000 mi.) and the principal canals (1,600 km.) are important locally for transportation. The Suez Canal is a major waterway of international commerce and navigation, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Major ports are Alexandria, Port Said, and Damietta on the Mediterranean, and Suez and Safraga on the Red Sea.

Egypt has long been the cultural and informational center of the Arab-speaking world, and Cairo is the region's largest publishing and broadcasting center. There are eight daily newspapers with a total circulation of more than 2 million, and a number of monthly newspapers, magazines, and journals. The majority of political parties have their own newspapers, and these papers conduct a lively, often highly partisan, debate on public issues.

Egyptian ground-broadcast television (ETV) is government controlled and depends heavily on commercial revenue. ETV sells its specially produced programs and soap operas to the Arab-speaking world. In addition to Egyptian programming, the Middle East Broadcast Company, a Saudi television station transmitting from London (MBC), Arab Radio and Television (ART), Al-Jazeera television, and other Gulf stations as well as Western networks such as CNN and BBC, provide access to more international programs to Egyptians who own satellite receivers.

ETV has two main channels, six regional channels, and three satellite channels. Of the two main channels, Channel I uses mainly Arabic, while Channel II is dedicated to foreigners and more cultured viewers, broadcasting news in English and French as well as Arabic.

Egyptian Satellite channels broadcast to the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. East Coast. In April 1998, Egypt launched its own satellite known as NileSat 101. Seven specialized channels cover news, culture, sports, education, entertainment, health, and drama. A second, digital satellite, Nilesat 102, was launched in August 2000. Many of its channels are rented to other stations.

Three new private satellite-based TV stations were launched in November 2001, marking a great change in Egyptian government policy. Dream TV 1 and 2 produce cultural programming, broadcast contemporary video clips and films featuring Egyptian and international actors, as well as soap operas; another private station focuses on business and general news. Both private channels transmit on NileSat.

Radio in Egypt almost all government controlled, using 44 short-wave frequencies, 18 medium-wave stations, and four FM stations. There are seven regional radio stations covering the country. Egyptian Radio transmits 60 hours daily overseas in 33 languages and three hundred hours daily within Egypt. In 2000, Radio Cairo introduced new specialized (thematic) channels on its FM station. So far, they include news, music, and sports. Radio enjoys more freedom than TV in its news programs, talk shows and analysis.

==History==
{{main|Egyptian chronology}}
Egypt has endured as a unified state for more than 5,000 years, and archaeological evidence indicates that a developed Egyptian society has existed for much longer. Egyptians take pride in their "pharaonic heritage" and in their descent from what they consider mankind's earliest civilization. The Arabic word for Egypt is Misr, which originally connoted "civilization" or "metropolis."
[[Image:5457e.jpg|right|thumb|300px|View of the Sphinx with Khafra Pyramid in background ''(Photograph taken by [http://www.ianandwendy.com Ian Sewell])'']]
Archaeological findings show that primitive tribes lived along the Nile long before the dynastic history of the pharaohs began. Based on these time estimates, organized agriculture appeared by 6000 B.C.

In about 3100 B.C., Egypt was united under a ruler known as Mena, or [[Menes]], who inaugurated the 30 pharaonic dynasties into which Egypt's ancient history is divided--the Old and the Middle Kingdoms and the New Empire. The [[pyramid]]s at [[Giza]] (near Cairo), which were built in the fourth dynasty, testify to the power of the pharaonic religion and state. The Great Pyramid, the tomb of Pharaoh [[Khufu]] (also known as Cheops), is the only surviving monument of the [[Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]]. Ancient Egypt reached the peak of its power, wealth, and territorial extent in the period called the New Empire (1567-1085 B.C.).

===Persian, Greek, Roman, and Arab Conquerors===
In 525 B., [[Cambyses]], the son of [[Cyrus the Great]], led a [[Persian]] invasion force that dethroned the last pharaoh of the 26th Dynasty. The country remained a Persian province until conquered by [[Alexander the Great]] in 322 BC, ushering in [[Ptolemeic]] rule Egypt that lasted for nearly 300 years. [[Cleopatra]] was the last ruler of that dynasty, but when she committed suicide after losing to Rome when her lover [[Marc Antony]] was defeated by [[Octavian]] in the [[Battle of Actium]], Egypt became a part of the [[Roman Empire]].

Egypt was invaded and conquered by Arab forces under [[Islam]] in 642. A process of Arabization and Islamization ensued. Although a [[Coptic Christian]] minority remained--and remains today, constituting about 10% of the population--the Arab language inexorably supplanted the indigenous Coptic tongue. For the next 1,300 years, a succession of Arab, [[Mameluke]], and Ottoman [[caliph]]s, beys, and [[sultan]]s ruled the country.

Like most of the middle east, the current population in modern Egypt is by [[Arabs]] that have Arabized the [[indigenous]] people, the Nubians and the [[Copts]] are considered to be the real natives to Egypt.

===European Influence===
[[File:Abu Simbel Temple Egypt.jpg|thumb|left|Abu Simbel.]]
The [[Ottoman Turks]] controlled Egypt from 1517 until 1882, except for a brief period of [[French]] rule under [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]. In 1805, [[Mohammed Ali (Egypt)|Mohammed Ali]], commander of an Albanian contingent of Ottoman troops, was appointed [[Pasha]], founding the dynasty that ruled Egypt, at least in name, until his great-great grandson, [[Farouk I]], was overthrown in 1952. Mohammed Ali the Great ruled Egypt until 1848, writing the first chapter in the modern history of Egypt. The growth of modern urban [[Cairo]] began in the reign of [[Ismail]] (1863-79). Eager to Westernize the capital, he ordered the construction of a European-style city to the west of the medieval core. The [[Suez Canal]] was completed in his reign in 1869, and its completion was celebrated by many events, including the commissioning of Verdi's "Aida" for the new opera house and the building of great palaces such as the Omar Khayyam (originally constructed to entertain the French Empress Eugenie, which is now the central section of the Cairo Marriott Hotel).

In 1882, British expeditionary forces crushed a revolt against the Ottoman rulers, marking the beginning of British occupation and the virtual inclusion of Egypt within the [[British Empire]]. In deference to growing nationalism, the U.K. unilaterally declared Egyptian independence in 1922. British influence, however, continued to dominate Egypt's political life and fostered fiscal, administrative, and governmental reforms.

In the pre-1952 revolution period, three political forces competed with one another: the Wafd, a broadly based nationalist political organization strongly opposed to British influence; [[King Fuad]], whom the British had installed during [[World War II]]; and the British themselves, who were determined to maintain control over the Canal. Other political forces emerging in this period included the communist party (1925) and the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] (1928), which eventually became a potent political and religious force.

During [[World War II]], British troops used Egypt as a base for Allied operations throughout the region. British troops were withdrawn to the [[Suez Canal]] area in 1947, but nationalist, anti-British feelings continued to grow after the war. On July 22-23, 1952, a group of disaffected army officers (the "free officers") led by Lt. Col. [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] overthrew King Farouk, whom the military blamed for Egypt's poor performance in the 1948 war with [[Israel]]. Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, they abrogated the 1923 constitution and declared Egypt a republic on June 19, 1953. Nasser evolved into a charismatic leader, not only of Egypt, but the [[Arab world]], promoting and implementing "Arab socialism." He nationalized Egypt’s economy.

Nasser helped establish the [[Non-Aligned Movement]] of developing countries in September 1961, and continued to be a leading force in the movement until his death in 1970. When the United States held up military sales in reaction to Egyptian neutrality vis-à-vis [[Soviet Union|Moscow]], Nasser concluded an arms deal with [[Czechoslovakia]] in September 1955.

When the U.S. and the [[World Bank]] withdrew their offer to help finance the [[Aswan High Dam]] in mid-1956, Nasser nationalized the privately owned Suez Canal Company. The crisis that followed, exacerbated by growing tensions with Israel over [[guerrilla]] attacks from Gaza and Israeli reprisals, resulted in the invasion of Egypt that October by [[France]], [[Britain]], and Israel. Israel occupied the [[Sinai Peninsula]] while the canal was in the hands of the France and Britain, but all withdrew under U.S. pressure.
[[File:Louvres antiquites egyptiennes.jpg|thumb|Louvre, antiquities Egyptians.]]
Nasser's domestic policies were arbitrary and frequently oppressive, yet generally popular. All opposition was stamped out, and opponents of the regime frequently were imprisoned without trial. Nasser's foreign and military policies helped provoke the [[Six-Day War|Israeli attack of June 1967]] that virtually destroyed Egypt's armed forces along with those of [[Jordan]] and [[Syria]]. Israel wrested and occupied the Sinai Peninsula and the [[Gaza Strip]] from Egypt. Personally, Nasser never recovered from that loss. Nasser, nonetheless, was revered by the masses in Egypt and in the Arab world until his death in 1970.

After Nasser's death, another of the original "free officers," Vice President [[Anwar el-Sadat]], was elected President. In 1971, Sadat concluded a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union, but a year later, ordered Soviet advisers to leave. In October 1973, he launched the [[Yom Kippur War]] with Israel, in which Egypt's armed forces achieved unexpected initial successes but were defeated in Israeli counterattacks.

===Camp David and the Peace Process===
In a momentous change from the Nasser era, President Sadat shifted Egypt from a policy of confrontation with Israel to one of peaceful accommodation through negotiations. Following the Sinai Disengagement Agreements of 1974 and 1975, Sadat created a fresh opening for progress by his dramatic visit to [[Jerusalem]] in November 1977, the first Egyptian head of state to do so. This led to President [[Jimmy Carter]]'s invitation to President Sadat and [[Prime Minister Begin]] to join him in trilateral negotiations at [[Camp David]].

The outcome was the historic [[Camp David Accords|Camp David accords]], signed by Egypt and Israel and witnessed by the U.S. on September 17, 1978. The accords led to the March 26, 1979, signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, by which Egypt regained control of the Sinai in May 1982 and guaranteed continuous U.S. economic aid. Throughout this period, U.S.-Egyptian relations steadily improved, but Sadat's willingness to break ranks by making peace with Israel earned him the enmity of most Arab states. This enmity turned into open war between Egypt and Libya, which lasted for several months.

===Domestic Change===
[[Image:MuslimWomanEgypt.jpg|thumb|Muslim Woman]]
Sadat introduced greater political freedom and a new economic policy, the most important aspect of which was the infitah or "open door." This relaxed government controls over the economy and encouraged private, including foreign, investment. Sadat dismantled much of the existing political machine and brought to trial a number of former government officials accused of criminal excesses during the Nasser era.

Liberalization also included the reinstitution of due process and the legal banning of torture. Sadat tried to expand participation in the political process in the mid-1970s but later abandoned this effort. In the last years of his life, Egypt was racked by violence arising from discontent with Sadat's rule and sectarian tensions from radical Islam, and it experienced a renewed measure of repression.

===From Sadat to Mubarak===
On October 6, 1981, Islamic extremists assassinated President Sadat. [[Hosni Mubarak]], Vice President since 1975 and air force commander during the October 1973 war, was elected President later that month. He was subsequently confirmed by popular referendum for four more 6-year terms, most recently in September 2005. Mubarak has maintained Egypt's commitment to the Camp David peace process, while at the same time re-establishing Egypt's position as a leader in the Arab-speaking world. Egypt was readmitted to the [[Arab League]] in 1989. Egypt also has played a moderating role in such international fora as the [[UN]] and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Since 1991, Mubarak has overseen a domestic economic reform program to reduce the size of the public sector and expand the role of the private sector. There has been less progress in political reform. The November 2000 People's Assembly elections saw 34 members of the opposition win seats in the 454-seat assembly, facing a clear majority of 388 ultimately affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Opposition parties continue to face various difficulties in mounting credible electoral challenges to the NDP. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, remains an illegal organization and is not recognized as a political party (current Egyptian law prohibits the formation of political parties based on religion). Members are known publicly and openly speak their views, although they do not explicitly identify themselves as members of the organization. Members of the Brotherhood have been elected to the People's Assembly and local councils as independents, and most recently scored a major victory in 2005 parliamentary elections, winning 20% of the seats, thus forming the largest opposition group.

===2011 Freedom Protests===

[[File:Dalia Ziada.jpg|thumb|left|Activist Dalia Ziada.]]
In January 2011, spurred by increasing [[food]] and [[oil]] prices as well as rampant [[corruption]] of the [[Muslim]] autocrats,<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/08/egypt-revolution-muslim-brotherhood-democracy Egyptian revolution], the Guardian.</ref> many of Egyptians gathered at Tahrir square in [[Alexandria]] in an uprising. [[Conservatives]], irked by the inactions of the [[liberal]] [[president]] and secretary of state, have taken this as proof that the [[democrats]] implicitly support the Mubarak [[dictatorship]].<ref>[http://spectator.org/blog/2011/01/25/as-egypt-erupts-will-obama-rem Obama silent as Egypt erupts], American Spectator.</ref> [[American]] leadership to [[democracy]], the most promising of which includes personal intervention by Alaska Governor [[Sarah Palin]].<ref>[http://christwire.org/2011/01/as-egypt-descends-in-chaos-should-sarah-palin-support-a-us-led-invasion/ As Egypt descends in chaos, Palin should support a US led invasion] Christwire</ref>

On 11 February, Mubarak resigned from office. Vice President Omar Suleiman said: "Mubarak has mandated the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to run the state. God is our protector and succor." The Council of Armed Forces dissolved Egypt’s parliament and suspended the Constitution. Egyptians people associate Omar Suleiman with a new puppet of the US government. <ref> [http://www.presstv.com/detail/162945.html Mubarak setting thugs loose on people.]</ref>
[[File:Egyptian Museum Cairo Egypt.jpg|thumb|Egyptian Museum, Cairo.]]
The Egyptian Museum is situated at Tahrir square in Cairo where many of Egyptians gathered during protests; Egyptian soldiers fought off an army of looters and arrested more than 50 thieves who were trying to steal the nation's treasures. The Museum, which is home to the gold mask of King Tutankhamen and other priceless artifacts, suffered mainly at the museum shop and two mummies were damaged. <ref>[http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-01-31/news/27738516_1_looters-antiquities-priceless-artifacts Protesters defended Cairo's Egyptian Museum from looters; archeological warehouses raided.] </ref> <ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8291526/Egypt-crisis-Looters-destroy-mummies-in-Cairo-museum.html Egypt crisis: Looters destroy mummies in Cairo museum.]</ref>
{{Clear}}

=== Islamist dictatorship ===
After Mubarak has gone the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] was elected. The currently president is the Islamist [[Mohammed Morsi]].

==Further reading==
* Thompson, Jason. ''A History of Egypt: From Earliest Times to the Present'' (2009) 432 pages

== External links ==
[[File:Meidum pyramid.jpg|thumb|Meidum pyramid.]]
*[http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html Ancient Egypt] The Trustees of the British Museum.
*[http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/Default.htm Egypt] Egypt State Information Service.
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russia and the U.S.]

==References and Footnotes==

<references/>

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}
Source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5309.htm]

[[Category:Egypt]]
{{African Countries}}
[[Category:Muslim-Majority Countries]]
[[Category:Egypt]]
[[Category:African History]]
[[Category:British Empire]]

Egypt

2013-03-04T17:50:52Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

{{Country
|name =''جمهورية مصر العربية ''Gumhūriyyat Misr al-Arabiyyah'''
|map =Egypt rel97.jpg
|map2 =Location of Egypt.png
|flag =Flag of Egypt.png
|arms =Arms of Egypt.png
|capital =Cairo
|capital-raw =
|government =Semi-Presidential republic
|government-raw =
|language =Arabic
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Mohamed Morsi
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Hescham Kandil
|pm-raw =
|area =386,660 sq mi
|pop =82,079,000
|pop-basis =2011
|gdp =
|gdp-year =$329.791 billion (2006)
|gdp-pc =$4,836 (2006)
|currency =Egyptian pound
|idd =
|tld =
}}

'''Egypt''' is a country located in north-east [[Africa]], and is the site of one of the oldest recorded civilizations on earth. Egypt is currently ruled by the [[Muslim Brotherhood]], after [[Hosni Mubarak]] left office under international pressure.

==Name==
The name "Egypt" is derived from the [[Greek language|Greek]] word ''Aígyptos'' (Αίγυπτος), which was possibly a corruption from the compound word ''Aegaeon uptiōs'' (''Aίγαίου υπτίως''), meaning "below the Aegean" (Strabo). Ancient Egyptians referred to their land as ''Kemet'' ("black land"), in reference to the black [[silt]] deposited by the annual [[Nile]] [[flood]]s.

"Misr" (مصر)is the modern [[Arabic]] name for Egypt, which is based upon the [[Hebrew]] word "Mizraim" (מִצְרַיִם); the ancient Hebrews referred to Egypt as the "land of Mizraim" after the founder of that country.

==Geography==
[[File:Taba Heights Egypt.jpg|left|180px]]
Egypt has four main regions: the Eastern and Western Deserts, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Nile Valley and Delta, where about 99 percent of population lives. Modest amounts of [[rain]]fall occur along the Mediterranean coast; rainfall throughout the remainder of the country is minimal to nonexistent.

 
 
 

==People==
Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab-speaking world and the second-most populous on the African Continent. Nearly all of the country's 79 million people live in [[Cairo]] and [[Alexandria]]; elsewhere on the banks of the Nile; in the Nile delta, which fans out north of Cairo; and along the [[Suez Canal]]. These regions are among the world's most densely populated, containing an average of over 3,820 persons per square mile (1,540 per sq. km.), as compared to 181 persons per sq. mi. for the country as a whole.
[[Image:Egypt shop owner.jpg|left]]
Small communities spread throughout the [[desert]] regions of Egypt are clustered around oases and historic trade and transportation routes. The government has tried with mixed success to encourage migration to newly [[irrigation|irrigated]] land reclaimed from the desert. However, the proportion of the population living in rural areas has continued to decrease as people move to the cities in search of employment and a higher standard of living.

The Egyptians are a fairly homogeneous people of Hamitic origin. Mediterranean and Arab influences appear in the north, and there is some mixing in the south with the Nubians of northern [[Sudan]]. Ethnic minorities include a small number of [[Bedouin]] Arab nomads in the eastern and western deserts and in the [[Sinai]], as well as some 50,000-100,000 Nubians clustered along the Nile in Upper (southern) Egypt.

The literacy rate is about 58% of the adult population. Education is free through university and compulsory from ages six through 15. Rates for primary and secondary education have strengthened in recent years. Ninety-three percent of [[children]] enter [[primary school]] today, compared with 87% in 1994. Major universities include Cairo University (100,000 students), Alexandria University, and the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar University, one of the world's major centers of Islamic learning.

Egypt's vast and rich [[literature]] constitutes an important cultural element in the life of the country and in the Arab-speaking world as a whole. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Egyptian literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Egyptian to win the [[Nobel prize]] for literature. Egyptian books and films are available throughout the Middle East.
*Population (July 2006 est.): 78,887,007.
*Annual growth rate (2006 est.): 1.75%.
*Ethnic groups: Egyptian, Bedouin Arab, Nubian.
*Religions: Muslim 94%, Coptic Christian and other 6%.
*Languages: Arabic (official), English, French.
*Education: Years compulsory--ages 6-15. Literacy--total adult: 58%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate (2006 est.)--31.33 deaths/1,000 live births. Life expectancy (2006 est.): 71 years.

==Government and Political Conditions==
[[File:Mohamed Morsi Egypt.jpg|thumb|left|Radical new President Mohamed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood.]]
[[File:Hassan Mohamed Hassan Egypt Breaking Chains.jpg|thumb|Hassan Mohamed Hassan, Egypt Breaking Chains.]]
The Egyptian Constitution provides for a strong executive. Authority is vested in an elected president who can appoint one or more vice presidents, a prime minister, and a cabinet. The president's term runs for 6 years. Egypt's legislative body, the People's Assembly, has 454 members--444 popularly elected and 10 appointed by the president. The constitution reserves 50% of the assembly seats for "workers and peasants." The assembly sits for a 5-year term but can be dissolved earlier by the President. There also is a 264-member Shura (consultative) Council, in which 88 members are appointed and 174 elected for 6-year terms. Below the national level, authority is exercised by and through governors and mayors appointed by the central government and by popularly elected local councils.

Opposition party organizations make their views public and represent their followers at various levels in the political system, but power is concentrated in the hands of the President and the National Democratic Party majority in the People's Assembly and those institutions dominate the political system. In addition to the ruling National Democratic Party, there are 18 other legally recognized parties, whereas in 2004 there were only 16 other legally recognized parties.

The November 2000 elections were generally considered to have been more transparent and better executed than past elections, because of universal judicial monitoring of polling stations. On the other hand, opposition parties continue to lodge credible complaints about electoral manipulation by the government. There are significant restrictions on the political process and freedom of expression for non-governmental organizations, including professional syndicates and organizations promoting respect for human rights.

Progress was seen in the September 2005 presidential elections when parties were allowed to field candidates against President Mubarak and his National Democratic Party. In early 2005, President Mubarak proposed amending the constitution to allow, for the first time in Egypt's history, competitive, multi-candidate elections. An amendment was drafted by parliament and approved by public referendum in late May 2005. In September 2005, President Mubarak was reelected, according to official results, with 88% of the vote. His two principal challengers, Ayman Nour and No'man Gom'a, took 7% and 3% of the vote respectively.

Egypt's judicial system is based on European (primarily French) legal concepts and methods. Under the Mubarak government, the courts have demonstrated increasing independence, and the principles of due process and judicial review have gained greater respect. The legal code is derived largely from the Napoleonic Code. Marriage and personal status (family law) are primarily based on the religious law of the individual concerned, which for most Egyptians is Islamic Law (Sharia).

===Principal Government Officials===
*President-- Mohamed Morsi
*Vice President--
*Prime Minister--
*Interior Minister--
*Minister of Foreign Affairs--
*Ambassador to the United States--Ambassador
*Permanent Representative to the United Nations--Ambassador

===Foreign Relations===
Geography, population, history, military strength, and diplomatic expertise give Egypt extensive political influence in the Middle East and within the Non-Aligned Movement as a whole. Cairo has been a crossroads of Arab commerce and culture for millennia, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development.
[[File:Avenue of Sphinxes Egypt.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Avenue of Sphinxes.]]
The Arab League headquarters is in Cairo, and the Secretary General of the League is traditionally an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amre Moussa is the present Secretary General of the Arab League. Ex-President Mubarak has often chaired the African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity). Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.

Egypt is a key partner in the search for peace in the Middle East and resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sadat's groundbreaking trip to Israel in 1977, the 1978 Camp David Accords, and the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty represented a fundamental shift in the politics of the region--from a strategy of confrontation to one of peace as a strategic choice. Egypt was subsequently ostracized by other Arab states and ejected from the Arab League from 1979 to 1989. Egypt played an important role in the negotiations leading to the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991, which, under U.S. and Russian sponsorship, brought together all parties in the region to discuss Middle East peace. This support has continued to the present, with Ex-President Mubarak often intervening personally to promote peace negotiations. In 1996, he hosted the Sharm El-Sheikh "Summit of the Peacemakers" attended by President Clinton and other world leaders. In 2000, he hosted two summits at Sharm El-Sheikh and one at Taba in an effort to resume the Camp David negotiations suspended in July of 2000, and in June 2003, Mubarak hosted President Bush for another summit on the Middle East peace process. Throughout mid-2004, Egypt worked closely with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to facilitate stability following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, which occurred in August and September of 2005. Prior to this Egypt and Israel reached an agreement that allowed Egypt to deploy additional forces along the Philadelphi Corridor in an attempt to control the border and prevent the smuggling of weapons.

Egypt played a key role during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis. Ex-President Mubarak helped assemble the international coalition and deployed 35,000 Egyptian troops against Iraq to liberate Kuwait. The Egyptian contingent was the third-largest in the coalition forces, after the U.S. and U.K. In the aftermath of the Gulf war, Egypt signed the Damascus declaration with Syria and the Gulf states to strengthen Gulf security. Egypt continues to contribute regularly to UN peacekeeping missions, most recently in East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. In August 2004, Egypt was actively engaged in seeking a solution to the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, including the dispatch of military monitors. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Egypt, which has itself been the target of terrorist attacks, has been a key supporter of the U.S. war against terrorists and terrorist organizations such as Osama bin Ladin and al-Qaeda, and actively supported the Iraqi Governing Council, as well as the subsequent government of Prime Minister Allawi. In July 2005, terrorists attacked the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh. In the same month, Egypt's envoy to Iraq was assassinated.

In the tenue of [[Mohammed Morsi]], the relations to [[Iran]] were improved.<ref>http://frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/the-emerging-egyptian-iranian-strategic-alliance/</ref>

==Defense==
Egypt's armed forces, among the largest in the region, include the army, air defense, air force, and navy. The armed forces inventory includes equipment from the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the former Soviet Union. Equipment from the former Soviet Union is being progressively replaced by more modern American, French, and British equipment, a significant portion of which is built under license in Egypt. To bolster stability and moderation in the region, Egypt has provided military assistance and training to a number of African and Arab states. Egypt remains a strong military and strategic partner of the United States.

==Economy==
[[File:Egypt The Nile in Cairo.jpg|thumb|left|340px|The Nile in Cairo.]]
With the installation of the 2004 Egyptian parliament, the Government of Egypt began a new reform movement, following a stalled economic reform program begun in 1991, but moribund since the mid-1990s. In the past year, the cabinet economic team has simplified and reduced tariffs and taxes, improved the transparency of the national budget, revived stalled privatizations of public enterprises and implemented economic legislation designed to foster private sector-driven economic growth and improve Egypt's competitiveness. Despite these achievements, the economy is still hampered by government intervention, substantial subsidies for food, housing, and energy, and bloated public sector payrolls. Moreover, the public sector still controls most heavy industry.

In sectoral terms, agriculture is mainly in private hands, and has been largely deregulated, with the exception of cotton and sugar production. Construction, non-financial services, and domestic marketing are also largely private. The Egyptian economy, however, relies heavily on tourism, oil and gas exports, and Suez Canal revenues, much of which is controlled by the public sector and is also vulnerable to outside factors. The tourism sector suffered tremendously following a terrorist attack in Luxor in October 1997. The tourism sector feared a repeat of the downturn in tourist numbers when terrorists attacked resorts in the Sinai Peninsula in 2004 and 2005. So far, however, the sector has not suffered as greatly as expected.

The U.S. has a large assistance program in Egypt and provides funding for a variety of programs in addition to some cash transfers. A portion of U.S. assistance to Egypt under the 2003 Iraq war supplemental appropriations was provided in the form of bond guarantees, which were contingent upon Egyptian compliance with a series of economic conditions. Egypt met the conditions and in September 2005 issued $1.25 billion in 10-year bonds that were fully guaranteed by the United States. To support the Middle East peace process through regional economic integration, the United States permits products to be imported from Egypt without tariffs if they have been produced in Qualified Industrial Zones and 11.7% of the inputs of these products originate from Israel.
*GDP (2005 est.): $303 billion.
*Annual growth rate (2005 est.): 4.8%.
*Per capita GDP (2005 est.): $4,282.
*Natural resources: Petroleum and natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc.
*Agriculture: Products--cotton, rice, onions, beans, citrus fruits, wheat, corn, barley, sugar.
*Industry: Types--food processing, textiles, chemicals, petrochemicals, construction, light manufacturing, iron and steel products, aluminum, cement, military equipment.
*Trade (FY 2005): Exports--$14.3 billion: petroleum, clothing and textiles, cotton, fruits and vegetables, manufactured goods. *Major markets--EU, U.S., Middle East, Japan. Imports--$24.1 billion: machinery and transport equipment, petroleum products, livestock, food and beverages, paper and wood products, chemicals. Major suppliers--EU, U.S., Japan.

===Agriculture===
Approximately one-third of Egyptian labor is engaged directly in farming, and many others work in the processing or trading of agricultural products. Nearly all of Egypt’s agricultural production takes place in some 2.5 million hectares (6 million acres) of fertile soil in the Nile Valley and Delta. Some desert lands are being developed for agriculture, including the ambitious Toshka project in Upper Egypt, but some other fertile lands in the Nile Valley and Delta are being lost to urbanization and erosion.
[[File:Egyptian Countryside.jpg|left|400px]]
Warm weather and plentiful water permit several crops a year. Further improvement is possible, but land is worked intensively and yields are high. Cotton, rice, wheat, corn, sugarcane, sugar beets, onions, and beans are the principal crops. Increasingly, a few modern operations are producing fruits, vegetables and flowers, in addition to cotton, for export. While the desert hosts some large, modern farms, more common traditional farms occupy one acre each, typically in a canal-irrigated area along the banks of the Nile. Many small farmers also have cows, water buffaloes, and chicken, although larger modern farms are becoming more important.

The United States is a major supplier of wheat, corn, and soybean products to Egypt, almost all through commercial sales. Egypt is, in fact, traditionally the U.S.'s largest market for wheat sales. U.S. agricultural sales to Egypt average $1 billion annually. U.S. food assistance programs to Egypt ended in 1992 as Egypt became more prosperous. Egypt continues to receive modest food assistance through the World Food Program and from France.

"Egypt," wrote the Greek historian Herodotus 25 centuries ago, "is the gift of the Nile." The land's seemingly inexhaustible resources of water and soil carried by this mighty river created in the Nile Valley and Delta the world's most extensive [[oasis]]. Without the Nile, Egypt would be little more than a desert wasteland.

The river carves a narrow, cultivated floodplain, never more than 20 kilometers wide, as it travels northward toward Cairo from Lake Nasser on the Sudanese border, behind the Aswan High Dam. Just north of Cairo, the Nile spreads out over what was once a broad estuary that has been filled by riverine deposits to form a fertile delta about 250 kilometers wide (150 mi.) at the seaward base and about 160 kilometers (96 mi.) from south to north.

Before the construction of dams on the Nile, particularly the Aswan High Dam (started in 1952, completed in 1970), the fertility of the Nile Valley was sustained by the water flow and the silt deposited by the annual flood. Sediment is now obstructed by the Aswan High Dam and retained in Lake Nasser. The interruption of yearly, natural fertilization and the increasing salinity of the soil has been a manageable problem resulting from the dam. The benefits remain impressive: more intensive farming on millions of acres of land made possible by improved irrigation, prevention of flood damage, and the generation of billions of low-cost kilowatt hours of electricity.

The Western Desert accounts for about two-thirds of the country's land area. For the most part, it is a massive sandy plateau marked by seven major depressions. One of these, Fayoum, was connected about 3,600 years ago to the Nile by canals. Today, it is an important irrigated agricultural area.

===Natural Resources===
[[Image:Woman bread egypt.jpg|290px|right]]
In addition to the agricultural capacity of the Nile Valley and Delta, Egypt's natural resources include petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, and iron ore. Crude oil is found primarily in the Gulf of Suez and in the Western Desert. Natural gas is found mainly in the Nile Delta, off the Mediterranean seashore, and in the Western Desert. Oil and gas accounts for approximately 12% of GDP. Export of petroleum and related products (including bunker and aviation sales) amounted to $2.7 billion in fiscal year 2003-04.

Crude oil production has been in decline for several years, from a high of more than 920,000 barrels per day (BPD) in 1995 to less than 662,000 BPD as of April 2006. To minimize the growing domestic demand of petroleum products, currently estimated at 25 million metric tons per year, Egypt is encouraging the production of natural gas. Over a 5-year period, production of natural gas increased by approximately 75% to reach about 3.3 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) by the end of FY 2003/04. Currently, gas accounts for almost 50% of all hydrocarbon usage in Egypt.

Over the last 22 years, more than 230 oil and gas exploration agreements have been signed and multinational oil companies spent more than $27 billion in exploration companions. As of September 2003, crude oil reserves were estimated at 2.8 billion barrels, and proven natural gas reserves were estimated at 62 trillion cubic feet (TCF) with probable additional reserves totaling another 40-60 TCF. Texas-based Apache Oil Company is the largest American investor in Egypt, with a total investment of more than $2.8 billion since 1996.

Egypt's excess of natural gas will more than meet its domestic demand for many years to come. The Ministry of Petroleum has determined that expanding the Egyptian petrochemical industry and increasing exports of natural gas as its most significant strategic objectives. As of September 2005, three liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains had been in operation. The first is in Damietta on the eastern side of the Delta and started exporting in early 2005. It is headed by the Spanish electric utility, Union Fenosa. The second LNG project is located at Idku on the western side of the Delta and started exporting in 2005. The first train started in April 2005, and the second in September. British Gas (BG) Group and the Malaysian state oil company Petronas are the major investors. Another project that will utilize gas for export and domestic consumption is the Mediterranean Gas Complex in Port Said where the Italian company AGIP and BP are the main shareholders. This facility will have a total cost of about $315 million and went on line in late 2004.

Egypt and Jordan established the Eastern Gas Company to export natural gas to Jordan, and then later to Syria and Lebanon. In summer 2003 Egypt began exporting gas to Jordan via a new pipeline from El Arish on Egypt’s north Sinai cost to Taba on the Gulf of Aqaba, and then underwater to the Jordanian city of Aqaba. Gas exports to Jordan generated gross revenues of approximately $60 million in 2003/04 and are currently reaching $85-100 million.

===Transport and Communication===
[[File:Cairo Nile River.jpg|thumb|250px|Cairo, Nile River.]]
Transportation facilities in Egypt are centered in Cairo and largely follow the pattern of settlement along the Nile. The main line of the nation's 4,800-kilometer (2,800-mi.) railway network runs from Alexandria to Aswan. The well-maintained road network has expanded rapidly to over 21,000 miles, covering the Nile Valley and Delta, Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts, the Sinai, and the Western oases.

Egypt Air provides reliable domestic air service to major tourist destinations from its Cairo hub, in addition to overseas routes. The Nile River system (about 1,600 km. or 1,000 mi.) and the principal canals (1,600 km.) are important locally for transportation. The Suez Canal is a major waterway of international commerce and navigation, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Major ports are Alexandria, Port Said, and Damietta on the Mediterranean, and Suez and Safraga on the Red Sea.

Egypt has long been the cultural and informational center of the Arab-speaking world, and Cairo is the region's largest publishing and broadcasting center. There are eight daily newspapers with a total circulation of more than 2 million, and a number of monthly newspapers, magazines, and journals. The majority of political parties have their own newspapers, and these papers conduct a lively, often highly partisan, debate on public issues.

Egyptian ground-broadcast television (ETV) is government controlled and depends heavily on commercial revenue. ETV sells its specially produced programs and soap operas to the Arab-speaking world. In addition to Egyptian programming, the Middle East Broadcast Company, a Saudi television station transmitting from London (MBC), Arab Radio and Television (ART), Al-Jazeera television, and other Gulf stations as well as Western networks such as CNN and BBC, provide access to more international programs to Egyptians who own satellite receivers.

ETV has two main channels, six regional channels, and three satellite channels. Of the two main channels, Channel I uses mainly Arabic, while Channel II is dedicated to foreigners and more cultured viewers, broadcasting news in English and French as well as Arabic.

Egyptian Satellite channels broadcast to the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. East Coast. In April 1998, Egypt launched its own satellite known as NileSat 101. Seven specialized channels cover news, culture, sports, education, entertainment, health, and drama. A second, digital satellite, Nilesat 102, was launched in August 2000. Many of its channels are rented to other stations.

Three new private satellite-based TV stations were launched in November 2001, marking a great change in Egyptian government policy. Dream TV 1 and 2 produce cultural programming, broadcast contemporary video clips and films featuring Egyptian and international actors, as well as soap operas; another private station focuses on business and general news. Both private channels transmit on NileSat.

Radio in Egypt almost all government controlled, using 44 short-wave frequencies, 18 medium-wave stations, and four FM stations. There are seven regional radio stations covering the country. Egyptian Radio transmits 60 hours daily overseas in 33 languages and three hundred hours daily within Egypt. In 2000, Radio Cairo introduced new specialized (thematic) channels on its FM station. So far, they include news, music, and sports. Radio enjoys more freedom than TV in its news programs, talk shows and analysis.

==History==
{{main|Egyptian chronology}}
Egypt has endured as a unified state for more than 5,000 years, and archaeological evidence indicates that a developed Egyptian society has existed for much longer. Egyptians take pride in their "pharaonic heritage" and in their descent from what they consider mankind's earliest civilization. The Arabic word for Egypt is Misr, which originally connoted "civilization" or "metropolis."
[[Image:5457e.jpg|right|thumb|300px|View of the Sphinx with Khafra Pyramid in background ''(Photograph taken by [http://www.ianandwendy.com Ian Sewell])'']]
Archaeological findings show that primitive tribes lived along the Nile long before the dynastic history of the pharaohs began. Based on these time estimates, organized agriculture appeared by 6000 B.C.

In about 3100 B.C., Egypt was united under a ruler known as Mena, or [[Menes]], who inaugurated the 30 pharaonic dynasties into which Egypt's ancient history is divided--the Old and the Middle Kingdoms and the New Empire. The [[pyramid]]s at [[Giza]] (near Cairo), which were built in the fourth dynasty, testify to the power of the pharaonic religion and state. The Great Pyramid, the tomb of Pharaoh [[Khufu]] (also known as Cheops), is the only surviving monument of the [[Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]]. Ancient Egypt reached the peak of its power, wealth, and territorial extent in the period called the New Empire (1567-1085 B.C.).

===Persian, Greek, Roman, and Arab Conquerors===
In 525 B., [[Cambyses]], the son of [[Cyrus the Great]], led a [[Persian]] invasion force that dethroned the last pharaoh of the 26th Dynasty. The country remained a Persian province until conquered by [[Alexander the Great]] in 322 BC, ushering in [[Ptolemeic]] rule Egypt that lasted for nearly 300 years. [[Cleopatra]] was the last ruler of that dynasty, but when she committed suicide after losing to Rome when her lover [[Marc Antony]] was defeated by [[Octavian]] in the [[Battle of Actium]], Egypt became a part of the [[Roman Empire]].

Egypt was invaded and conquered by Arab forces under [[Islam]] in 642. A process of Arabization and Islamization ensued. Although a [[Coptic Christian]] minority remained--and remains today, constituting about 10% of the population--the Arab language inexorably supplanted the indigenous Coptic tongue. For the next 1,300 years, a succession of Arab, [[Mameluke]], and Ottoman [[caliph]]s, beys, and [[sultan]]s ruled the country.

Like most of the middle east, the current population in modern Egypt is by [[Arabs]] that have Arabized the [[indigenous]] people, the Nubians and the [[Copts]] are considered to be the real natives to Egypt.

===European Influence===
[[File:Abu Simbel Temple Egypt.jpg|thumb|left|Abu Simbel.]]
The [[Ottoman Turks]] controlled Egypt from 1517 until 1882, except for a brief period of [[French]] rule under [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]. In 1805, [[Mohammed Ali (Egypt)|Mohammed Ali]], commander of an Albanian contingent of Ottoman troops, was appointed [[Pasha]], founding the dynasty that ruled Egypt, at least in name, until his great-great grandson, [[Farouk I]], was overthrown in 1952. Mohammed Ali the Great ruled Egypt until 1848, writing the first chapter in the modern history of Egypt. The growth of modern urban [[Cairo]] began in the reign of [[Ismail]] (1863-79). Eager to Westernize the capital, he ordered the construction of a European-style city to the west of the medieval core. The [[Suez Canal]] was completed in his reign in 1869, and its completion was celebrated by many events, including the commissioning of Verdi's "Aida" for the new opera house and the building of great palaces such as the Omar Khayyam (originally constructed to entertain the French Empress Eugenie, which is now the central section of the Cairo Marriott Hotel).

In 1882, British expeditionary forces crushed a revolt against the Ottoman rulers, marking the beginning of British occupation and the virtual inclusion of Egypt within the [[British Empire]]. In deference to growing nationalism, the U.K. unilaterally declared Egyptian independence in 1922. British influence, however, continued to dominate Egypt's political life and fostered fiscal, administrative, and governmental reforms.

In the pre-1952 revolution period, three political forces competed with one another: the Wafd, a broadly based nationalist political organization strongly opposed to British influence; [[King Fuad]], whom the British had installed during [[World War II]]; and the British themselves, who were determined to maintain control over the Canal. Other political forces emerging in this period included the communist party (1925) and the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] (1928), which eventually became a potent political and religious force.

During [[World War II]], British troops used Egypt as a base for Allied operations throughout the region. British troops were withdrawn to the [[Suez Canal]] area in 1947, but nationalist, anti-British feelings continued to grow after the war. On July 22-23, 1952, a group of disaffected army officers (the "free officers") led by Lt. Col. [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] overthrew King Farouk, whom the military blamed for Egypt's poor performance in the 1948 war with [[Israel]]. Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, they abrogated the 1923 constitution and declared Egypt a republic on June 19, 1953. Nasser evolved into a charismatic leader, not only of Egypt, but the [[Arab world]], promoting and implementing "Arab socialism." He nationalized Egypt’s economy.

Nasser helped establish the [[Non-Aligned Movement]] of developing countries in September 1961, and continued to be a leading force in the movement until his death in 1970. When the United States held up military sales in reaction to Egyptian neutrality vis-à-vis [[Soviet Union|Moscow]], Nasser concluded an arms deal with [[Czechoslovakia]] in September 1955.

When the U.S. and the [[World Bank]] withdrew their offer to help finance the [[Aswan High Dam]] in mid-1956, Nasser nationalized the privately owned Suez Canal Company. The crisis that followed, exacerbated by growing tensions with Israel over [[guerrilla]] attacks from Gaza and Israeli reprisals, resulted in the invasion of Egypt that October by [[France]], [[Britain]], and Israel. Israel occupied the [[Sinai Peninsula]] while the canal was in the hands of the France and Britain, but all withdrew under U.S. pressure.
[[File:Louvres antiquites egyptiennes.jpg|thumb|Louvre, antiquities Egyptians.]]
Nasser's domestic policies were arbitrary and frequently oppressive, yet generally popular. All opposition was stamped out, and opponents of the regime frequently were imprisoned without trial. Nasser's foreign and military policies helped provoke the [[Six-Day War|Israeli attack of June 1967]] that virtually destroyed Egypt's armed forces along with those of [[Jordan]] and [[Syria]]. Israel wrested and occupied the Sinai Peninsula and the [[Gaza Strip]] from Egypt. Personally, Nasser never recovered from that loss. Nasser, nonetheless, was revered by the masses in Egypt and in the Arab world until his death in 1970.

After Nasser's death, another of the original "free officers," Vice President [[Anwar el-Sadat]], was elected President. In 1971, Sadat concluded a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union, but a year later, ordered Soviet advisers to leave. In October 1973, he launched the [[Yom Kippur War]] with Israel, in which Egypt's armed forces achieved unexpected initial successes but were defeated in Israeli counterattacks.

===Camp David and the Peace Process===
In a momentous change from the Nasser era, President Sadat shifted Egypt from a policy of confrontation with Israel to one of peaceful accommodation through negotiations. Following the Sinai Disengagement Agreements of 1974 and 1975, Sadat created a fresh opening for progress by his dramatic visit to [[Jerusalem]] in November 1977, the first Egyptian head of state to do so. This led to President [[Jimmy Carter]]'s invitation to President Sadat and [[Prime Minister Begin]] to join him in trilateral negotiations at [[Camp David]].

The outcome was the historic [[Camp David Accords|Camp David accords]], signed by Egypt and Israel and witnessed by the U.S. on September 17, 1978. The accords led to the March 26, 1979, signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, by which Egypt regained control of the Sinai in May 1982 and guaranteed continuous U.S. economic aid. Throughout this period, U.S.-Egyptian relations steadily improved, but Sadat's willingness to break ranks by making peace with Israel earned him the enmity of most Arab states. This enmity turned into open war between Egypt and Libya, which lasted for several months.

===Domestic Change===
[[Image:MuslimWomanEgypt.jpg|thumb|Muslim Woman]]
Sadat introduced greater political freedom and a new economic policy, the most important aspect of which was the infitah or "open door." This relaxed government controls over the economy and encouraged private, including foreign, investment. Sadat dismantled much of the existing political machine and brought to trial a number of former government officials accused of criminal excesses during the Nasser era.

Liberalization also included the reinstitution of due process and the legal banning of torture. Sadat tried to expand participation in the political process in the mid-1970s but later abandoned this effort. In the last years of his life, Egypt was racked by violence arising from discontent with Sadat's rule and sectarian tensions from radical Islam, and it experienced a renewed measure of repression.

===From Sadat to Mubarak===
On October 6, 1981, Islamic extremists assassinated President Sadat. [[Hosni Mubarak]], Vice President since 1975 and air force commander during the October 1973 war, was elected President later that month. He was subsequently confirmed by popular referendum for four more 6-year terms, most recently in September 2005. Mubarak has maintained Egypt's commitment to the Camp David peace process, while at the same time re-establishing Egypt's position as a leader in the Arab-speaking world. Egypt was readmitted to the [[Arab League]] in 1989. Egypt also has played a moderating role in such international fora as the [[UN]] and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Since 1991, Mubarak has overseen a domestic economic reform program to reduce the size of the public sector and expand the role of the private sector. There has been less progress in political reform. The November 2000 People's Assembly elections saw 34 members of the opposition win seats in the 454-seat assembly, facing a clear majority of 388 ultimately affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Opposition parties continue to face various difficulties in mounting credible electoral challenges to the NDP. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, remains an illegal organization and is not recognized as a political party (current Egyptian law prohibits the formation of political parties based on religion). Members are known publicly and openly speak their views, although they do not explicitly identify themselves as members of the organization. Members of the Brotherhood have been elected to the People's Assembly and local councils as independents, and most recently scored a major victory in 2005 parliamentary elections, winning 20% of the seats, thus forming the largest opposition group.

===2011 Freedom Protests===

[[File:Dalia Ziada.jpg|thumb|left|Activist Dalia Ziada.]]
In January 2011, spurred by increasing [[food]] and [[oil]] prices as well as rampant [[corruption]] of the [[Muslim]] autocrats,<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/08/egypt-revolution-muslim-brotherhood-democracy Egyptian revolution], the Guardian.</ref> many of Egyptians gathered at Tahrir square in [[Alexandria]] in an uprising. [[Conservatives]], irked by the inactions of the [[liberal]] [[president]] and secretary of state, have taken this as proof that the [[democrats]] implicitly support the Mubarak [[dictatorship]].<ref>[http://spectator.org/blog/2011/01/25/as-egypt-erupts-will-obama-rem Obama silent as Egypt erupts], American Spectator.</ref> [[American]] leadership to [[democracy]], the most promising of which includes personal intervention by Alaska Governor [[Sarah Palin]].<ref>[http://christwire.org/2011/01/as-egypt-descends-in-chaos-should-sarah-palin-support-a-us-led-invasion/ As Egypt descends in chaos, Palin should support a US led invasion] Christwire</ref>

On 11 February, Mubarak resigned from office. Vice President Omar Suleiman said: "Mubarak has mandated the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to run the state. God is our protector and succor." The Council of Armed Forces dissolved Egypt’s parliament and suspended the Constitution. Egyptians people associate Omar Suleiman with a new puppet of the US government. <ref> [http://www.presstv.com/detail/162945.html Mubarak setting thugs loose on people.]</ref>
[[File:Egyptian Museum Cairo Egypt.jpg|thumb|Egyptian Museum, Cairo.]]
The Egyptian Museum is situated at Tahrir square in Cairo where many of Egyptians gathered during protests; Egyptian soldiers fought off an army of looters and arrested more than 50 thieves who were trying to steal the nation's treasures. The Museum, which is home to the gold mask of King Tutankhamen and other priceless artifacts, suffered mainly at the museum shop and two mummies were damaged. <ref>[http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-01-31/news/27738516_1_looters-antiquities-priceless-artifacts Protesters defended Cairo's Egyptian Museum from looters; archeological warehouses raided.] </ref> <ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8291526/Egypt-crisis-Looters-destroy-mummies-in-Cairo-museum.html Egypt crisis: Looters destroy mummies in Cairo museum.]</ref>
{{Clear}}

=== Islamist dictatorship ===
After Mubarak has gone the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] was elected. The currently president is the Islamist [[Mohammed Morsi]].

==Further reading==
* Thompson, Jason. ''A History of Egypt: From Earliest Times to the Present'' (2009) 432 pages

== External links ==
[[File:Meidum pyramid.jpg|thumb|Meidum pyramid.]]
*[http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html Ancient Egypt] The Trustees of the British Museum.
*[http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/Default.htm Egypt] Egypt State Information Service.
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russian and the U.S.]

==References and Footnotes==

<references/>

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}
Source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5309.htm]

[[Category:Egypt]]
{{African Countries}}
[[Category:Muslim-Majority Countries]]
[[Category:Egypt]]
[[Category:African History]]
[[Category:British Empire]]

Israel

2013-03-04T17:49:21Z

BertSchlossberg: /* External links */

{{Country
|name =מדינת ישראל ''Medīnat Yisrā'el''
|map =Israel shaded.jpg
|flag =Flag of Israel.png
|arms =Arms of Israel.png
|capital =Jerusalem
|capital-raw =
|government =Parliamentary Democracy
|government-raw =
|language =Hebrew
|language2 =Arabic
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|governor general=
|governor general-raw=
|president =Shimon Peres
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Benjamin Netanyahu
|pm-raw =
|chairman =
|general secretary=
|governor =
|governor-raw =
|premier =
|premier-raw =
|area =8,019 / 8,522 sq mi
|pop =7,184,000
|pop-basis =2007
|gdp =$170.3 billion
|gdp-year =2006
|gdp-pc =$31,767
|currency =Shekel
|idd =
|tld =
}}
The '''State of Israel''' ([[Hebrew]]: '''מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל''', ''Medinat Yisra'el'' from ''' יִשְׂרָאֵל''' ''Yisra'el'', "Struggled with God") is a nation located in the [[Middle East]]. It is the world's only Jewish state, having emerged from [[Zionism]] in Europe and the U.S. in the 1880s-1940s. It grants citizenship to anybody considered to be [[Jewish]]. It also contains Arab Muslim and Arab Christian minorities who are remnants of the pre-1948 Arab majority, along with a small [[Druze]] community. It is the location of most Biblical events.

==Geography==
[[File:Haifa Israel.JPG|thumb|420px|center|Haifa.]]
Israel occupies an area along the eastern Mediterranean Sea, with [[Jordan]] and [[Syria]] to the east; [[Lebanon]] on the north; and [[Egypt]] to the south. The territories of the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip]] are currently controlled by Israel, but disputed.

The terrain varies from a temperate, coastal climate to desert conditions. Israel shares with Jordan the shoreline of the [[Dead Sea]], at 1,378 feet below sea level the lowest point on earth.

==People==
Of the approximately 6.43 million Israelis in 2007, about 76% were counted as Jewish, though some of those are not considered Jewish under [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jewish]] law. Since 1989, nearly a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union have arrived in Israel, making this the largest wave of immigration since independence. In addition, an estimated 105,000 members of the [[Ethiopian]] Jewish community have immigrated to Israel, 14,000 of them during the dramatic May 1991 Operation Solomon airlift. 32.9% of Israelis were born outside of Israel.

The three broad Jewish groupings are the Ashkenazim, or Jews who trace their ancestry to [[Central Europe]]; the Sephardim, who trace their origin to [[Spain]], [[Portugal]], southern Europe, and North Africa; and Eastern or Oriental Jews, who descend from ancient communities in Islamic lands. Of the non-Jewish population, about 68% are Muslims, about 9% are Christian, and about 7% are Druze.
[[File:People at a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.jpg|thumb|280px|left|At a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.]]
Education is compulsory from age 6 to 16 and is free up to age 18. The school system is organized into kindergartens, 6-year primary schools, 3-year junior secondary schools, and 3-year senior secondary schools, after which a comprehensive examination is offered for university admissions. There are seven university-level institutions in Israel, a number of regional colleges, and an Open University program.

The majority of families in Israel - Jewish and Arab - send their children to segregated schools. This [[segregation]] poses a distinct problem, tending to promote rival viewpoints and attitudes that become ripe for exploitation by proponents of violence. Within Israel, the schools of the minority Arab population become incubators for resentment and hostility, while the schools of the majority Jewish population tend to reinforce a sense of insulation from the concerns of others. <ref>http://handinhandk12.org/</ref>

With a population drawn from more than 100 countries on 5 continents, Israeli society is rich in cultural diversity and artistic creativity. The arts are actively encouraged and supported by the government. ''The first Jewish artist on record was named Bezalel. He was an architect, sculptor and designer of holy garments. Mostly he was known for making the Tabernacle that contained the Ark of the Covenant.'' <ref> [http://www.jewish-art.org/ancient-jewish-art.html Ancient Jewish art]</ref> The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra performs throughout the country and frequently tours abroad. The Jerusalem Symphony and the New Israel Opera also tour frequently, as do other musical ensembles. Almost every municipality has a chamber orchestra or ensemble, many boasting the talents of gifted performers from the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Israel has several professional ballet and modern dance companies, and folk dancing, which draws upon the cultural heritage of many immigrant groups, continues to be very popular. There is great public interest in the theater; the repertoire covers the entire range of classical and contemporary drama in translation as well as plays by Israeli authors. Of the three major repertory companies, the most famous, Habimah, was founded in 1917.

Active artist colonies thrive in Safed, Jaffa, and Ein Hod, and Israeli painters and sculptors exhibit works worldwide. Israel boasts more than 120 museums, including the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls along with an extensive collection of regional archaeological artifacts, art, and Jewish religious and folk exhibits. Israelis are avid newspaper readers, with more than 90% of Israeli adults reading a newspaper at least once a week. Major daily papers are in Hebrew; others are in Arabic, English, French, Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Hungarian, and German.

==Government==
[[Image:Tst4436.jpg|right|thumb|250px|[[David Ben Gurion]], the First Prime Minister of Israel, publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948, [[Tel Aviv]], Israel, beneath a large [[portraits|portrait]] of Theodore Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism, in the old Tel Aviv Museum of Art building on Rotshild St.]]
Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a governmental system based on several basic laws enacted by its unicameral parliament, the Knesset. The president (chief of state) is elected by the Knesset for a 5-year term.

The prime minister (head of government) exercises executive power and has in the past been selected by the president as the party leader most able to form a government. Between May 1996 and March 2001, Israelis voted for the prime minister directly. (The legislation, which required the direct election of the prime minister, was rescinded by the Knesset in March 2001.) The members of the cabinet must be collectively approved by the Knesset.

The Knesset's 120 members are elected by secret ballot to 4-year terms, although the prime minister may decide to call for new elections before the end of the 4-year term. Voting is for party lists rather than for individual candidates, and the total number of seats assigned each party reflects that party's percentage of the vote. Successful Knesset candidates are drawn from the lists in order of party-assigned rank. Under the present electoral system, all members of the Knesset are elected at large.

The independent judicial system includes secular and religious courts. The courts' right of judicial review of the Knesset's legislation is limited. Judicial interpretation is restricted to problems of execution of laws and validity of subsidiary legislation. The highest court in Israel is the Supreme Court, whose judges are approved by the President.

Israel is divided into six districts, administration of which is coordinated by the Ministry of Interior. The Ministry of Defense is responsible for the administration of the occupied territories.

===Principal Government Officials===
*President--Shimon Peres (Szymon Persky)
*Prime Minister--Benjamin Netanyahu
*Foreign Minister--Avigdor Lieberman (Our Home Israel)
*Ambassador to the United States--Sallai Meridor
*Ambassador to the United Nations--Dan Gillerman

===Political Conditions===
[[File:Knesset Israel.jpg|right|300px|The Knesset, The House of Representatives.]]
From the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948 until the election of May 1977 Israel was ruled by successive coalition governments led by the Labor alignment or its constituent parties. From 1967-70 the coalition government included all of Israel's parties except the communist party. After the 1977 election the Likud bloc, then composed of Herut, the Liberals, and the smaller La'am Party, came to power forming a coalition with the National Religious Party, Agudat Israel, and others. As head of Likud, Menachem Begin became Prime Minister. The Likud retained power in the succeeding election in June 1981, and Begin remained Prime Minister. In the summer of 1983, Begin resigned and was succeeded by his Foreign Minister, Yitzhak Shamir.

After Prime Minister Shamir lost a Knesset vote of confidence early in 1984, new elections in July provided no clear winner, with both Labor and Likud considerably short of a Knesset majority and unable to form even narrow coalitions. After several weeks of difficult negotiations, they agreed on a government of national unity, including the rotation of the office of Prime Minister and the combined office of Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister midway through the government's 50-month term.

During the first 25 months of unity government rule, Labor's Shimon Peres served as Prime Minister, while Likud's Shamir held the posts of Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, until they switched positions in October 1986. In November 1988 elections, Likud edged Labor out by one seat but was unable to form a coalition, producing another national unity government in January 1989. Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister, and [[Shimon Peres]] became Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister. This government fell in March 1990, however, in a vote of no confidence precipitated by disagreement over the government's response to U.S. Secretary of State Baker's initiative in the peace process. Labor Party leader Peres was unable to attract sufficient support among the religious parties to form a government. Yitzhak Shamir then formed a Likud-led coalition government, including members from religious and right-wing parties.

Shamir's government took office in June 1990, and held power for 2 years. In the June 1992 national elections, the Labor Party reversed its electoral fortunes, taking 44 seats. Labor Party leader [[Yitzhak Rabin]] formed a coalition with [[Meretz]] (a leftist party) and Shas (an ultra-Orthodox religious party). The coalition included the support of two Arab-majority parties. Rabin became Prime Minister in July 1992, presiding over the signing of the Oslo accords with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]]. However, Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Jewish radical on November 4, 1995. Peres, then Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, once again became Prime Minister and immediately proceeded to carry forward the peace policies of the Rabin government and to implement Israel's Oslo commitments, including military redeployment in the West Bank and the holding of historic Palestinian elections on January 20, 1996.

Enjoying broad public support and anxious to secure his own mandate, Peres called for early elections after just 3 months in office. (They would have otherwise been held by the end of October 1996.) In late February and early March, a series of suicide bombing attacks by Palestinian terrorists took some 60 Israeli lives, seriously eroding public support for Peres and raising concerns about the peace process. Increased fighting in southern Lebanon, which also brought Katyusha rocket attacks against northern Israel, also raised tensions and weakened the government politically a month before the May 29 elections.
[[File:Ariel-sharon.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Ariel Sharon.]]
In those elections--the first direct election of a Prime Minister in Israeli history--Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu won by a narrow margin, having sharply criticized the government's peace policies for failing to protect Israeli security. Netanyahu subsequently formed a right-wing coalition government publicly committed to pursuing the peace process, but with an emphasis on security and reciprocity. In 1999, with a shrunken coalition and facing increasing difficulty passing legislation and defeating no-confidence motions, Netanyahu dissolved parliament and called for new elections. This time, the Labor candidate--Ehud Barak--was victorious. Barak formed a mixed coalition government of secular and religious parties, with Likud in the opposition. In May 2000, Barak fulfilled one of his major campaign promises by withdrawing Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon. However, by mid-autumn, with the breakdown of the Camp David talks and the worsening security situation caused by the new intifada, Barak's coalition was in jeopardy. In December, he resigned as Prime Minister, precipitating a new prime ministerial election.

In a special election on February 6, 2001, after a campaign stressing security and the maintenance of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, Likud leader [[Ariel Sharon]] defeated Barak by over 20 percentage points. As he had promised in his campaign, Sharon formed a broad unity government that included the Labor and Likud parties, the far-right parties, some smaller secular parties, and several religious parties. The unity government collapsed in late 2002, and new elections were held in January 2003. Sharon again won, and formed a new government consisting of his own Likud party, the right-wing National Religious Party and National Union party, and centrist Shinui.

The summer of 2004 saw renewed instability in the government, as disagreement over the Gaza disengagement plan resulted in Sharon's firing two ministers of the National Union Party and accepting the resignation of a third from the National Religious Party in order to secure cabinet approval of the plan (it was endorsed on June 6, 2004). Continuing divisions within the Likud on next steps then prompted Ariel Sharon to leave the party in November 2005 to form the Kadima ("Forward") party and call new elections for March 2006. However, Sharon was unexpectedly incapacitated in January 2006 due to a severe stroke and leadership of Kadima shifted to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who on March 28 led the party to 29 seats in the Knesset. Labor came in second with 19 seats, and Shas and Likud tied with 12. After intensive coalition negotiations, a new, Kadima-led government, with Labor as "senior partner", was sworn in on May 4, 2006.

===Foreign Relations===
In addition to seeking an end to hostilities with Arab forces, against which it has fought five wars since 1948, Israel has given high priority to gaining wide acceptance as a sovereign state with an important international role.
[[File:Leaders Orient Arab Israel.jpg|left|300px|November, 2010.]]
Before 1967, Israel had established diplomatic relations with a majority of the world's nations, except for the Arab states and most other Muslim countries. UN Security Council resolutions provided the basis for cease-fire and disengagement agreements concerning the Sinai and the Golan Heights between Israel, Egypt, and Syria and for promoting the Camp David accords and the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. The Soviet Union and the communist states of Central Europe (except Romania) broke diplomatic relations with Israel during the 1967 war, but those relations were restored by 1991.

The landmark October 1991 Madrid conference recognized the importance of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 in resolving regional disputes, and brought together for the first time Israel, the Palestinians, and the neighboring Arab countries, launching a series of direct bilateral and multilateral negotiations. These talks were designed to finally resolve outstanding security, border, and other issues between the parties while providing a basis for mutual cooperation on issues of general concern, including the status of refugees, arms control and regional security, water and environmental concerns, and economic development.

Today, Israel has diplomatic relations with 161 states. Following the signing of the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on September 13, 1993, Israel established or renewed diplomatic relations with 36 countries. Israel has full diplomatic relations with Egypt, Jordan, and Mauritania. In addition, on October 1, 1994, the Gulf States publicly announced their support for a review of the Arab boycott, in effect abolishing the secondary and tertiary boycotts against Israel.

Israel has diplomatic relations with nine non-Arab Muslim states and with 32 of the 43 Sub-Saharan states that are not members of the Arab League. Israel established relations with China and India in 1992 and with the Holy See in 1993.

===Relations with the United States===
[[File:Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu 2008.jpg|thumb|left|Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama in 2008.]]
[[Image:Mosque.jpg|right|thumb|250px|The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem]]
Commitment to Israel's security and well being has been a cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Middle East since Israel's founding in 1948, in which the United States played a key supporting role. Israel and the United States are bound closely by historic and cultural ties as well as by mutual interests. Continuing U.S. economic and security assistance to Israel acknowledges these ties and signals U.S. commitment. The broad issues of Arab-Israeli peace have been a major focus in the U.S.-Israeli relationship. U.S. efforts to reach a Middle East peace settlement are based on many critical security interests. The United State's strong national security interests in promoting regional security in the Middle East and curtailing acts of terrorism both in Israel and abroad are supported in part by UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. As one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, the United States also has a strong interest in promoting Israel's economic success.

On a bilateral level, relations between the United States and Israel are continually strengthening in every field. In addition to the Joint Political-Military Group described above, there are: bilateral science and technology efforts (including the Binational Science Foundation and the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Foundation); the U.S.-Israeli Education Foundation, which sponsors educational and cultural programs; the Joint Economic Development Group, which maintains a high-level dialogue on economic issues; the Joint Counterterrorism Group, designed to enhance cooperation in fighting terrorism; and a high-level Strategic Dialogue that meets biannually.

==Defense==
Israel's ground, air, and naval forces, known as the Israel Defense Force (IDF), fall under the command of a single general staff. Conscription is universal for Israeli men and women over the age of 18, although exemptions may be made on religious grounds. Druze, members of a small Islamic offshoot living in Israel's mountains, also serve in the IDF. [[Israeli Arabs]], with the exception of some [[Bedouins]], do not serve. During 1950-66, Israel spent an average of 9% of GDP on defense. Real defense expenditures increased dramatically after both the 1967 and 1973 wars. Military spending in 2005 totaled $9.45 billion, which is equivalent to 7.7% of GDP, and represents 16.3% of government expenditures. The United States provides approximately $2.4 billion per year in security assistance.

In 1983, the United States and Israel established the Joint Political Military Group, which meets twice a year. Both the U.S. and Israel participate in joint military planning and combined exercises, and have collaborated on military research and weapons development.

==Economy==
[[File:Israeli Tel Aviv.jpg|thumb|left|230px|Tel Aviv.]]
Israel has a diversified, technologically advanced economy with substantial but decreasing government ownership and a strong high-tech sector. The major industrial sectors include high-technology electronic and biomedical equipment, metal products, processed foods, chemicals, and transport equipment. Israel possesses a substantial service sector and is one of the world's centers for diamond cutting and polishing. It also is a world leader in software development and, prior to the violence that began in September 2000, was a major tourist destination.

Israel's strong commitment to economic development and its talented work force led to economic growth rates during the nation's first two decades that frequently exceeded 10% annually. The years after the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]] were a lost decade economically, as growth stalled and [[inflation]] reached triple-digit levels. The successful economic stabilization plan implemented in 1985 and the subsequent introduction of market-oriented structural reforms reinvigorated the economy and paved the way for rapid growth in the 1990s.

A wave of Jewish immigration beginning in 1989, predominantly from the countries of the former U.S.S.R., brought nearly a million new citizens to Israel. These new immigrants, many of them highly educated, now constitute some 13% of Israel's 6.7 million inhabitants. Their successful absorption into Israeli society and its labor force forms a remarkable chapter in Israeli history. The skills brought by the new immigrants and their added demand as consumers gave the Israeli economy a strong upward push and in the 1990s, they played a key role in the ongoing development of Israel's high-tech sector.
*GDP (2006 est.): $170.3 billion.
*Annual growth rate (2006): 4.8%.
*Per capita GDP (2006): $26,800.
*Currency: Shekel (4.13 shekels = 1 U.S. dollar; 2007 est.).
*Natural resources: [[Copper]], [[phosphate]], [[bromide]], [[potash]], [[clay]], [[sand]], [[sulfur]], [[bitumen]], [[manganese]].
*Agriculture: Products--citrus and other fruits, vegetables, beef, dairy, and poultry products.
*Industry: Types--high-technology projects (including aviation, communications, computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics, fiber optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, tobacco, caustic soda, cement, construction, plastics, chemical products, diamond cutting and polishing, metal products, textiles, and footwear.
*Trade: Exports (2006 est.)--$42.86 billion. Exports include polished diamonds, electronic communication, medical and scientific equipment, chemicals and chemical products, electronic components and computers, machinery and equipment, transport equipment, rubber, plastics, and textiles. Imports (excluding defense imports, 2006 est.)--$47.8 billion: raw materials, diamonds, energy ships and airplanes, machinery, equipment, land transportation equipment for investment, and consumer goods. Major partners--U.S., U.K., Germany; exports--U.S., Belgium, Hong Kong; imports--U.S., Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, U.K.

During the 1990s, progress in the Middle East peace process, beginning with the Madrid Conference of 1991, helped to reduce Israel's economic isolation from its neighbors and opened up new markets to Israeli exporters farther afield. The peace process stimulated an unprecedented inflow of foreign investment in Israel, and provided a substantial boost to economic growth in the region over the last decade. The onset of the intifada beginning at the end of September of 2000, the downturn in the high-tech sector and Nasdaq crisis, and the slowdown of the global economy have all significantly affected the Israeli economy. However, despite the recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, the Israeli economy grew during 2006.
[[File:Shopping Tel Aviv Israel.jpg|right]]
Israeli companies, particularly in the high-tech area, have in the past enjoyed considerable success raising money on Wall Street and other world financial markets; Israel ranks second to Canada among foreign countries in the number of its companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Israel's tech market is very developed, and in spite of the pause in the industry's growth, the high-tech sector is likely to be the major driver of the Israeli economy. Almost half of Israel's exports are high tech. Most leading players, including Intel, IBM, and Cisco have a presence in Israel.

Growth was an exceptional 6.2% in 2000, due in part to a number of one-time high tech acquisitions and investments. This exceptional year was followed by two years of negative growth of -0.9% and -1%, respectively, in 2001 and 2002. As a result of the security situation and the associated downturn in the economy, there was a significant rise in unemployment and wage erosion. This led to a decline in private consumption in 2002, the first time that there had been negative private consumption since the early 1980s. However, following growth rates of 1.7% in 2003 and 4.4% in 2004, the Israeli economy entered into a period of stabilization and recovery after the deep recession of 2001 and 2002. Since then, the Israeli economy seems to have returned to a trend of consistent growth. The Israeli economy grew by 5.2% in 2005 and GDP per capita (U.S. $17,800) increased by 3.3%. The Israeli economy grew by an estimated 4.8% in 2006.

Exports of goods and services in Israel grew by 7% in 2005. Service and agricultural exports each increased by more than 10% in 2005, whereas exports increased by 5.6% and imports rose to 4.4%. [[Israel Tourism]] revenues increased by 22.7% as a result of the dramatic increase following the intifada's subsidence.

Israel's private consumption increased by 4% in 2005. The largest growth in private consumption was in the purchase of clothing, footwear, and personal effects, which increased by 10.2%, following an increase of 5.4% in 2004. Consumption of consumer durables grew much more slowly than in 2004, with an increase of only 3.4%, compared with 14.3% the previous year.

In the Israeli business sector, business GDP grew by 6.6% in 2005. According to CBS statistics, the transportation, storage, and communications industries grew by 9.2%, following growth of 6.6% in 2004. The GDP of the wholesale, retail, restaurant, and hotel sector increased by 8.1%, up from 6.1% in 2004. The GDP of the finance and business services sector in 2005 increased by 6.4%, up from the previous year's 6.1% growth rate.

The general consensus among economists is that Israel's economy is very strong and that its growth potential is in the 4% to 5% range.
[[File:Bar Rafaeli Israel.jpg|thumb|left|Bar Refaeli, model and actress.]]
The United States is Israel's largest trading partner. In 2005, two-way trade totaled some $26.6 billion, up 12% from 2004. The U.S. trade deficit with Israel was $7.1 billion in 2005, up 33% from 2004, due largely to rising Israeli exports to the U.S. U.S. exports to Israel rose 6.1% in 2005 to $9.7 billion, making Israel our 19th largest export market for goods. The principal goods exported from the U.S. include civilian aircraft parts, telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, civilian aircraft, electrical apparatus, and computer accessories. Israel's chief exports to the U.S. include diamonds, pharmaceutical preparations, telecommunications equipment, medicinal equipment, electrical apparatus, and cotton apparel. The two countries signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in 1985 that progressively eliminated tariffs on most goods traded between the two countries over the following 10 years. An agricultural trade accord signed in November 1996 addressed the remaining goods not covered in the FTA but has not entirely erased barriers to trade in the agricultural sector. Israel also has trade and cooperation agreements in place with the European Union, Canada, Mexico, and other countries.

Best prospect industry sectors in Israel for U.S. exporters are electricity and gas equipment, defense equipment, medical instruments and disposable products, industrial chemicals, telecommunication equipment, electronic components, building materials/construction industries (DIY and infrastructure), safety and security equipment and services, non-prescription drugs, travel and tourism services, and computer software.

==History==
[[File:Twelve Tribes of Israel.JPG|thumb|left|Twelve Tribes of Israel.]]
[[File:Map of the Holy Land.jpg|thumb|Map of the Holy Land Divided into the XII Tribes of Israel, by Emanuel Bowen, PUBLISHED 1752.]]
The name Israel refers to [[Jacob]] from the [[Bible]], the father of the [[Jews]] who would eventually create the kingdom of Israel. (See the [[Genesis|Book of Genesis]] in the Bible.) Jacob's descendants were numerous, but were put under bondage in [[Egypt]]. The first attempt at forming a nation dates back to the migration or [[Exodus of Israel]] out of Egypt after being freed from their [[slavery]]. (See the [[Exodus|Book of Exodus]] in the Bible). While the exact date is not known, the most likely scenario is in the 1400's B.C. After 40 years of wandering, the Hebrews attempted to settle in the land of Canaan, after first having to fight battles with the inhabitants. (See the [[Joshua (Biblical book)|Book of Joshua]] in the Bible). The Jewish people lived for hundreds of years under Judges (See the [[Judges|Book of Judges]] in the Bible) before forming a monarchy under their first King, [[Saul]] in 1050 B.C. Israel expanded under [[King David|David]] from 1010 to 970 B.C. and then reached its height under [[Solomon]] from 970 to 930 B.C. With the death of Solomon the united kingdom of Israel split in two with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin forming their own nation, [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]]. (See [[I Samuel]], [[II Samuel]], [[I Kings]], [[I Chronicles]] in the Bible)

The first King of Israel was [[Jeroboam I]], who made his capital at [[Shechem]] until it was replaced by [[Samaria]] under [[Omri]]. Almost immediately the Israeli kings "did evil in the sight of the Lord" and turned away from the Lord God. Although they were larger and more powerful than Judah, they fell more quickly due to their apostacy. Israel continued being ruled by kings until its conquest by [[Assyria]] in 722 B.C. Judah had a number of kings who did what was right in God's sight, but eventually they too were turning away. They continued as an independent nation until 586 B.C. when they fell to the [[Babylonians]]. Both of these conquests led to many Jews being deported from the land of Israel. While under [[Persian empire|Persian]] rule after the Babylonians had fallen to the Persians, the Jews were allowed to return and rebuild their temple (520 - 516 B.C.)<ref>An Encyclopedia of World History, Kingsport Press, 1948</ref> In the 400's B.C. they began to return to God as well, showing a reverence for Him that was often lacking during the time they had their own kingdom. Still under Persian rule and with their blessing, [[Nehemiah]] came to rebuild the walls of [[Jerusalem]], a position that was bitterly opposed by the other peoples living on the land. The Jews had to stand guard as they built.
[[File:Jews in Cochin PD.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Cochin Jews are the oldest group of Jews in [[India]].]]
When [[Alexander the Great]] swept through Israel in 332 B.C., Persian rule had ended to be replaced by [[Macedone|Greek]]. Upon Alexander's death in 323 B.C. there was a fight for power among his generals and subordinates, which led to Israel coming under control of the Ptolemies, the Greek leaders of Egypt. The Jews were treated leniently until the [[Seleucids]], the Greek leaders of Syria, pushed back the Ptolemies and took over Israel in 198 B.C. The Seleucids were not as lenient and under [[Antiochus IV]] (175 to 164 B.C.) conditions worsened considerably. In 168 B.C. Judaism was declared to be illegal and a pig was sacrified on the altar of the Jewish temple; the Jews revolted under the [[Maccabees]] and fought a prolonged [[guerrilla war]] until their eventual religious independence in 164 B.C. Complete acknowledgement of independence from the Seleucids didn't come until 142 B.C. when Roman pressure helped them to make the decision to let Israel go. This independence would last until 63 B.C., when infighting caused the Jews to ask for [[Roman]] intervention. Rome stopped the fighting, but Israel came under Roman rule as the province of [[Palestine]]. The Jewish people would not have their independence again for over 2000 years. It was under this state of Roman control that [[Jesus]] was born around 4 B.C. Three revolts against Roman rule by the Jews, the first in 66 A.D., the next in 115 A.D., and the last in 132 A.D. took place, and failed. After the failure of the third, the Romans forced the Jews to leave Israel thus beginning the [[diaspora]], the dispersal of the Jews from the land of Palestine.

By the fifth century the inhabitants of the region were Christianized, under the [[Byzantine Empire]], a situation which continued until the [[Arab]] invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs brought with them the [[Islam]]ic faith which, due to its many similarities with [[Christianity]] and [[Judaism]] and the social advantages it brought, was gradually adopted by the population. However, Jewish and Christian citizens continued to live in the region, in relative peace, until the Crusades.

The [[Crusades]] saw part of the Holy Lands reconquered from Islam in the name of Christianity. The Crusader states were temporary before being conquered by Islam again with the fall of the last Crusader state in 1290. First the [[Mamelukes]] controlled the area, then starting in the early 1500's, the [[Ottoman Turks]] conquered the region. [[World War I]] saw a British victory over the Ottoman's and the region came under British mandate of Palestine in 1920.

The British and late Ottoman authorities permitted the resettlement of Jews from Europe, many of them looking to establish a Jewish state in the region, part of a movement called [[Zionism]]. In the last years of British mandate the number and strength of the Jews in [[Palestine]] increased, with many adopting extremely radical tactics to achieve their goal of an independent Jewish state. Terrorist organizations such as Irgun and Lehi attacked British and Arab targets, killing civilians in the process. Britain's occupation became too expensive and they handed control to the [[United Nations]] to sort out a solution.

==Modern Nation==
[[Image:Zion.jpg|right|300px|Jaffa (Yafo) gate, Jerusalem.]]
The recreation of the State of Israel in 1948 was preceded by more than 50 years of efforts to re-establish a sovereign state as a homeland for the Jewish nation. These efforts were initiated by Theodore Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement, and were given added impetus by the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which asserted the British Government's support for the recreation of a Jewish homeland in roughly its [[Promised Land|original position]], which was then known as Palestine.

In the years following [[World War I]], Palestine became a British Mandate and the number of Jews returning to their homeland steadily increased, as did violence between Palestine's Jewish and Arab communities. Mounting British efforts to restrict this immigration were countered by international support for Jewish national aspirations following the near-extermination of European Jewry by the [[Nazis]] during [[World War II]]. This support led to the 1947 UN partition plan, which would have divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under UN administration.

[[Image:Israel48.jpg|thumb|400px|left]] On May 14, 1948, immediately after the British quit Palestine, the State of Israel was proclaimed and was immediately invaded by armies from neighboring Arab states, which rejected the UN partition plan. This conflict, Israel's War of Independence, was concluded by armistice agreements between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria in 1949 and resulted in a 50% increase in Israeli territory. The U.S. immediately recognized Israel and gave large amounts of financial aid through private sources, but did not at this time send military aid.

In 1956, French, British, and Israeli forces engaged Egypt in response to its nationalization of the Suez Canal and blockade of the Straits of Tiran. Israeli forces withdrew in March 1957, after the United Nations established the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Gaza Strip and Sinai. This war resulted in no territorial shifts and was followed by several years of terrorist incidents and retaliatory acts across Israel's borders.
===Six Day War (1967)===
In June 1967, Israeli forces in the [[Six-Day War]] struck targets in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in response to Egyptian President Nasser's ordered withdrawal of UN peace keepers from the Sinai Peninsula and the buildup of Arab armies along Israel's borders. After 6 days, all parties agreed to a cease-fire, under which Israel retained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River, and East Jerusalem. On November 22, 1967, the Security Council adopted Resolution 242, the "land for peace" formula, which called for the establishment of a just and lasting peace based on Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in return for the end of all states of belligerency, respect for the sovereignty of all states in the area, and the right to live in peace within secure, recognized boundaries. The Six Day War had a momentous effect on [[American Jews]], mobilizing new support for Israel.

The following years were marked by continuing violence across the Suez Canal, punctuated by the 1969-70 [[War of Attrition]] between Israel and Egypt. On October 6, 1973--Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement), the armies of Syria and Egypt [[Yom Kippur War|launched an attack against Israel]]. Although the Egyptians and Syrians initially made significant advances, Israel was able to push the invading armies back beyond the 1967 cease-fire lines by the time the United States and the Soviet Union helped bring an end to the fighting. In the UN Security Council, the United States supported Resolution 338, which reaffirmed Resolution 242 as the framework for peace and called for peace negotiations between the parties.

In the years that followed, sporadic clashes continued along the cease-fire lines but guided by the U.S., Egypt, and Israel continued negotiations. In November 1977, Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]] made a historic visit to Jerusalem, which opened the door for the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace summit convened at Camp David by [[Jimmy Carter|President Carter]]. These negotiations led to a 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, pursuant to which Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1982, signed by President Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menahem Begin of Israel.

In the years following the 1948 war, Israel's border with Lebanon was quiet relative to its borders with other neighbors. After the expulsion of Palestinian fighters from Jordan in 1970 and their influx into southern Lebanon, however, hostilities along Israel's northern border increased and Israeli forces crossed into Lebanon. After passage of Security Council Resolution 425, calling for Israeli withdrawal and the creation of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeeping force (UNIFIL), Israel withdrew its troops.
[[File:Karakal Israel.jpg|left]]
In June 1982, following a series of cross-border terrorist attacks and the attempted assassination of the Israeli Ambassador to the U.K., Israel invaded Lebanon to fight the forces of Yasser Arafat's [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO). The PLO withdrew its forces from Lebanon in August 1982. Israel, having failed to finalize an agreement with Lebanon, withdrew most of its troops in June 1985 save for a residual force which remained in southern Lebanon to act as a buffer against attacks on northern Israel. These remaining forces were completely withdrawn in May 2000 behind a UN-brokered delineation of the Israel-Lebanon border (the Blue Line). Hezbollah forces in Southern Lebanon continued to attack Israeli positions south of the Blue Line in the Sheba Farms/Har Dov area of the Golan Heights.

The victory of the U.S.-led coalition in the [[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]] of 1991 opened new possibilities for regional peace. In October 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union convened the Madrid Conference, in which Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, and Palestinian leaders laid the foundations for ongoing negotiations designed to bring peace and economic development to the region. Within this framework, Israel and the PLO signed a Declaration of Principles on September 13, 1993, which established an ambitious set of objectives relating to a transfer of authority from Israel to an interim Palestinian authority. Israel and the PLO subsequently signed the Gaza-Jericho Agreement on May 4, 1994, and the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities on August 29, 1994, which began the process of transferring authority from Israel to the Palestinians.

On October 26, 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a historic peace treaty, witnessed by President Clinton. This was followed by Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and PLO Chairman Arafat's signing of the historic Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on September 28, 1995. This accord, which incorporated and superseded previous agreements, broadened Palestinian self-government and provided for cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians in several areas.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by a right-wing Jewish radical, bringing the increasingly bitter national debate over the peace process to a climax. Subsequent Israeli governments continued to negotiate with the PLO resulting in additional agreements, including the Wye River and the Sharm el-Sheikh memoranda. However, a summit hosted by President Clinton at Camp David in July 2000 to address permanent status issues--including the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, final security arrangements, borders, and relations and cooperation with neighboring states--failed to produce an agreement.

Following the failed talks, widespread violence broke out in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in September 2000. In April 2001 the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact Finding Committee, commissioned by the October 2000 Middle East Peace Summit and chaired by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, submitted its report, which recommended an immediate end to the violence followed by confidence-building measures and a resumption of security cooperation and peace negotiations. Building on the Mitchell report, In April 2003, the Quartet (the U.S., UN, European Union (EU), and the Russian Federation) announced the "roadmap," a performance-based plan to bring about two states, Israel and a democratic, viable Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.

Despite the promising developments of spring 2003, violence continued and in September 2003 the first Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), resigned after failing to win true authority to restore law and order, fight terror, and reform Palestinian institutions. In response to the deadlock, in the winter of 2003-2004 Prime Minister Sharon put forward his Gaza disengagement initiative, proposing the withdrawal of Israeli settlements from Gaza as well as parts of the northern West Bank. President Bush endorsed this initiative in an exchange of letters with Prime Minister Sharon on April 14, 2004, viewing Gaza disengagement as an opportunity to move towards implementation of the two-state vision and begin the development of Palestinian institutions. In a meeting in May 2004 the Quartet endorsed the initiative, which was approved by the Knesset in October 2004.

The run-up to disengagement saw a flurry of diplomatic activity, including the February 2005 announcement of Lieutenant General William Ward as U.S. Security Coordinator; the March 2005 Sharon-Abbas summit in Sharm el-Sheikh; the return of Egyptian and Jordanian ambassadors to Israel; and the May 2005 appointment of former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn as Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement to work for a revitalization of the Palestinian economy after disengagement. Wolfensohn's direct involvement spurred Israeli-Palestinian agreement on the Gaza ‘crossings" at Karni and Erez, on the demolition of settler homes, water, electricity, and communications infrastructure issues, as well as other issues related to the Palestinian economy.

[[File:Israeli Defense Forces.jpg|center]]

On August 15, 2005, Israel began implementing its disengagement from the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli Defense Forces completed their withdrawal, including the dismantling of 17 settlements, on September 12. After broad recognition for Prime Minister Sharon's accomplishment at that fall's UN General Assembly, international attention quickly turned to efforts to strengthen Palestinian governance and the economy in Gaza. The United States brokered a landmark Agreement on Movement and Access between the parties in November 2005 to facilitate further progress on Palestinian economic issues. However, the terrorist organization Hamas--building on popular support for its "resistance" to Israeli occupation and a commitment to clean up the notorious corruption of the Palestinian Authority (PA)--took a majority in the January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections, with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya as Prime Minister. The Israeli leadership pledged not to work with a Palestinian government in which Hamas had a role.

Shortly following Hamas' PLC victory, the Quartet--comprised of the United States, European Union, United Nations. and Russia--outlined three basic principles the Hamas-led PA must meet in order for the U.S. and the international community to reengage with the PA: renounce violence and terror, recognize Israel, and respect previous agreements, including the roadmap. The Hamas-led PA government rejected these principles, resulting in a Quartet statement of "grave concern" on March 30, 2006 and the suspension of U.S. assistance to the PA, complete prohibition on U.S. Government contacts with the PA, and prohibition of unlicensed transactions with the PA government. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under the leadership of PLO Chairman and PA President Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), by contrast, remained consistently committed to the Quartet principles.
[[File:Israeli tanks Gaza strip borders 2007.jpg|left|thumb|340px|Israeli tanks, Gaza strip borders, 2007.]]
Despite several negotiated cease-fires between Hamas and Fatah, violent clashes in the Gaza Strip--and to a lesser extent in the West Bank--were commonplace between December 2006 and February 2007 and resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries. In an attempt to end the intra-Palestinian violence, the King of Saudi Arabia invited Palestinian rivals to Mecca, and on February 9, 2007, Abbas and Hamas leader Haniya agreed to the formation of a Palestinian national unity government and a cessation of violence. Hamas' rejectionist policies and violent behavior continued despite the formation of the national unity government.

In June 2007, Hamas effectively orchestrated a violent coup in Gaza. Hamas also launched scores of Qassam rockets into southern Israel in an attempt to involve Israel in the Hamas-Fatah conflict. On June 14, Palestinian Authority President Mahoud Abbas exercised his lawful authority by declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the national unity government, and replacing it with a new government with Salam Fayyad as Prime Minister.

The new Palestinian Authority government under President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad has no elements controlled by Hamas. The new government claims they are dedicated to peace and the Quartet principles and has been embraced politically and financially by the international community, including Israel, mainly because of the far worse alternative that Hamas represent.

==See also==
*[[Israel Tourism]]
*[[Jewish philosophy]]
*[[Israelophobia]]
*[[Gaza Strip]]
*[[Gallery of Jewish Painting]]
*[[Suicide bomber]]
*[[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]
*[[Jews in history]]
*[[In the midst of a Maelstrom: the Holy Spirit and silence: an essay]] an encounter between Israeli Jew and Egyptian Muslim in Alexandria
*[[Christmas in the Holy Land: an essay]]
*[[Adiabene]]
*[[What is Torah, what is Talmud]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jewishsbook.html Internet Jewish History Sourcebook]
*[http://israelemb.org/kids/ Welcome to Israel (for Kids)]
*[http://www.usy.org/yourusy/israel/support/ Ways to Support Israel]
*[http://www.jewart.com/2007/11/07/jewish-art-in-history/ Jewish art in history]
*[http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/collections/photoarchive.asp Photographic Archive] The Jewish Museum.
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7v1C0VUhyA A Hamas made video of one of their suicide bomber operations]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOVhTFOPKxc&feature=related Failed suicide bombing attempt by anguishing 21 year old woman]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zegXBwGBPZs Touring in Jerusalem, Tagalog and English]
*[http://www.conservativenewsandviews.com/2011/05/07/clergy/journey-to-israel-day-1/ Journey to Israel, Day One]
*[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/potoc.html American Attitudes Toward Israel.]
*[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewstoc.html Jews in America.]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/under-pillar-of-cloud.html Under a "Pillar of a Cloud"]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russia and the U.S.]

==Further reading==
[[File:Zionism1.jpg|thumb|270px|in front: David Ben Gurian, Golda Meir, Theodor Herzl]]
* Gilbert, Martin. ''Israel: A History'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/Israel-History-Martin-Gilbert/dp/0688123635/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261917385&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
* Oren, Michael B. ''Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East'' (2003), 480pp; standard history of the war [http://www.amazon.com/Six-Days-War-Making-Modern/dp/0345461924/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255773712&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Sachar, Howard M. ''A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/History-Israel-Rise-Zionism-Time/dp/0375711325/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261732421&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Shindler, Colin. ''A History of Modern Israel'' (2008), very good on politics; thin otherwise. [http://www.amazon.com/History-Modern-Israel-Colin-Shindler/dp/0521615380/ref=pd_sim_b_2 excerpt and text search]
* Stein, Leslie. ''The Hope Fulfilled: The Rise of Modern Israel'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Fulfilled-Praeger-Israeli-Studies/dp/027597815X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261915375&sr=1-1#noop excerpt and text search]
* Tucker, Spencer C., ed. ''The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict A Political, Social, and Military History'' (4 vol. 2008); vol 4 includes 150 primary sources
* Wigoder, Geoffrey, ed. ''New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel'' (2nd ed. 2 vol. 1994); 1521pp
===Primary sources===
* Laqueur, Walter, and Rubin, Barry, eds. ''The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict'' (7th ed. 2008) 626p.
* Rabinovich, Itamar, and Reinharz, Jehuda, eds. ''Israel in the Middle East: Documents and Readings on Society, Politics, and Foreign Relations, pre-1948 to the Present.'' (2008) 626pp

==References==

<References/>

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

Source: [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3581.htm]

{{Asian Countries}}

[[Category:Biblical Places]]
[[Category:Israel]]
[[Category:Zionism]]
[[Category:Israeli Wars]]
[[Category:Religion and Politics]]